Back to API Presets
API Preset
November 14, 2025•By Product API Team•Car

Building a Car API with The Product API: A Complete Guide

Create a specialized Car Product API with engine specs, fuel economy, safety ratings, and more. Perfect for car marketplaces and automotive research platforms.

Introduction to Cars

The automotive market is vast and complex, with thousands of vehicle models available from manufacturers worldwide. Whether you're a car buyer researching your next vehicle, a developer building a car marketplace, or a researcher analyzing automotive trends, having structured car product data is essential.

Imagine being able to search for cars and instantly get detailed information about each vehicle - from engine specifications to fuel economy, from safety ratings to seating capacity. This is exactly what a specialized Car Product API can provide.

What Makes a Car API Special?

A Car Product API goes beyond basic product listings. It understands the unique characteristics that matter to car buyers:

  • Engine Specifications: Type, displacement, horsepower, and torque
  • Fuel Efficiency: City and highway MPG ratings
  • Transmission: Manual, automatic, CVT, or dual-clutch
  • Drivetrain: FWD, RWD, AWD, or 4WD configuration
  • Safety: NHTSA and IIHS safety ratings
  • Vehicle Type: Sedan, SUV, truck, coupe, convertible, etc.

With this structured data, you can build powerful features like comparing fuel economy, filtering by vehicle type, or recommending cars based on user preferences.

Try It Out: Search for Cars

Use the search bar below to search for cars. Try queries like "Toyota Camry 2024", "Tesla Model 3", or "Ford F-150 hybrid". The results will include detailed specifications automatically extracted from product information across the web.

Try the Car API

Search for cars and see detailed specifications automatically extracted from product information.

How It Works: Technical Implementation

Now that you've seen the API in action, let's dive into how it's implemented. This specialized Car API is built on top of The Product API which is an AI-based product search API that works with any product and any type of query. It responds with structured JSON and supports custom structured responses, allowing you to build specialized APIs for any product category.

The Product API's powerful custom_data_schema feature allows you to define additional structured fields specific to your product category, enabling you to create category-specific APIs like this Car API. For more details on how the API works, see the full documentation.

Understanding APIs for Product Data

An API (Application Programming Interface) allows different software applications to communicate. For product data:

  • Input: You send a search query (e.g., "car Toyota Camry 2024")
  • Processing: The API searches across multiple sources and uses AI to extract relevant information
  • Output: You receive structured product data in JSON format

The flexibility of a product API means you can customize it for specific categories by defining additional data fields through JSON Schema.

Creating a Car-Specific JSON Schema to pass as custom_data_schema of search request

Here's the JSON Schema we use for car products:

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "model_year": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Model year (e.g., 2024, 2023)"
    },
    "engine_type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["gasoline", "diesel", "hybrid", "electric", "plug-in_hybrid"],
      "description": "Engine/fuel type"
    },
    "engine_displacement": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Engine displacement (e.g., '2.5L', '3.5L V6')"
    },
    "horsepower": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Horsepower"
    },
    "torque": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Torque (e.g., '184 lb-ft')"
    },
    "transmission": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["manual", "automatic", "CVT", "dual_clutch"],
      "description": "Transmission type"
    },
    "drivetrain": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["FWD", "RWD", "AWD", "4WD"],
      "description": "Drivetrain configuration"
    },
    "fuel_economy_city": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "City fuel economy in MPG"
    },
    "fuel_economy_highway": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Highway fuel economy in MPG"
    },
    "seating_capacity": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Number of seats"
    },
    "safety_rating": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "NHTSA or IIHS safety rating (e.g., '5 stars', 'Top Safety Pick')"
    },
    "vehicle_type": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["sedan", "SUV", "truck", "coupe", "convertible", "hatchback", "wagon"],
      "description": "Vehicle body type"
    },
    "price_range": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Price range category (economy, mid-range, luxury, premium)"
    }
  },
  "required": ["model_year", "engine_type", "vehicle_type"]
}

Using the Category Prefix

When searching for cars, we prefix the search query with "car" to help the AI understand the context and return more relevant results.

Example Search Queries:

  • car Toyota Camry 2024
  • car Tesla Model 3
  • car Ford F-150 hybrid
  • car BMW 3 Series

The prefix "car" ensures the API understands you're looking specifically for vehicle products and not other items.

Complete Example: Making a Request

Here's how to make a request to The Product API with a car-specific schema. For complete API reference including authentication, endpoints, and all parameters, see the documentation:

const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/api?search=car%20Toyota%20Camry%202024&with_image=true', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    custom_data_schema: {
      type: "object",
      properties: {
        model_year: {
          type: "number",
          description: "Model year"
        },
        engine_type: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["gasoline", "diesel", "hybrid", "electric", "plug-in_hybrid"],
          description: "Engine/fuel type"
        },
        engine_displacement: {
          type: "string",
          description: "Engine displacement"
        },
        horsepower: {
          type: "number",
          description: "Horsepower"
        },
        torque: {
          type: "string",
          description: "Torque"
        },
        transmission: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["manual", "automatic", "CVT", "dual_clutch"],
          description: "Transmission type"
        },
        drivetrain: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["FWD", "RWD", "AWD", "4WD"],
          description: "Drivetrain configuration"
        },
        fuel_economy_city: {
          type: "number",
          description: "City fuel economy in MPG"
        },
        fuel_economy_highway: {
          type: "number",
          description: "Highway fuel economy in MPG"
        },
        seating_capacity: {
          type: "number",
          description: "Number of seats"
        },
        safety_rating: {
          type: "string",
          description: "Safety rating"
        },
        vehicle_type: {
          type: "string",
          enum: ["sedan", "SUV", "truck", "coupe", "convertible", "hatchback", "wagon"],
          description: "Vehicle body type"
        },
        price_range: {
          type: "string",
          description: "Price range category"
        }
      },
      required: ["model_year", "engine_type", "vehicle_type"]
    }
  })
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.products);

Expected Response

The API will return products with standard fields plus your custom custom_data field:

{
  "status": "success",
  "products": [
    {
      "name": "2024 Toyota Camry LE",
      "description": "The 2024 Toyota Camry LE features a refined design...",
      "brand": "Toyota",
      "image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
      "custom_data": {
        "model_year": 2024,
        "engine_type": "hybrid",
        "engine_displacement": "2.5L 4-cylinder",
        "horsepower": 208,
        "torque": "163 lb-ft",
        "transmission": "CVT",
        "drivetrain": "FWD",
        "fuel_economy_city": 51,
        "fuel_economy_highway": 53,
        "seating_capacity": 5,
        "safety_rating": "5 stars",
        "vehicle_type": "sedan",
        "price_range": "mid-range"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Conclusion

By combining the flexible Product API with a car-specific JSON Schema, you can create a powerful, specialized API for car products. The key is:

  1. Define your schema based on what car data matters to your application
  2. Use category prefixes in search queries for better context
  3. Leverage the custom_data field to build rich, category-specific features

The same approach works for any product category - you just need to define the right schema for your needs!

Ready to get started? Create your own product API on The Product API and start building your own category-specific APIs today!

Ready to build your own category-specific API? Check out our other API preset guides for guitars, smartphones, drills, and more!