How to Research a Used Car With Claude

Someone on our team recently got a question from their brother-in-law. He was shopping for a 2024 Ford Expedition and wanted to know what they were listed for. He also needed to sell his current car to pay for it.

He could have done all of it himself, in the Claude app he already had. Here's how.

Why Claude can't answer this on its own

Without tools, Claude answers from its training data. That works for "is the Expedition's third row comfortable for adults?" It doesn't work for what's for sale near you today, how a specific car was built (options and paint aren't in the VIN), or whether a recall applies to the car in front of you. Claude will often answer those anyway, and sound sure.

How to connect Claude to Auto.dev

This works in Claude Desktop, with nothing to install.

1. Open Claude Desktop and go to Settings, then Connectors.
2. Choose Add Custom Connector. Name it auto-dev and paste https://mcp.auto.dev/mcp as the URL.
3. Sign in when the browser window opens. There's no API key to copy.
4. Start a new chat. Claude now has tools for listings, VIN decoding, recalls and more, and uses them when a question needs them.

What to ask

Shopping: see what's listed near you

Find 2024 Ford Expeditions for sale within 50 miles of 75201. Put them in a CSV with trim, price, miles, dealer and a link to each listing, cheapest first.

Claude searches listings with the auto_listings tool and builds the file from the results. These are asking prices on dealer listings that are live right now, not what cars sold for, and private-party ads aren't included. Listings search is on the Free plan, at one call per page of up to 20 listings.

Checking: before you drive to see one

Here's the VIN from the listing: [paste the VIN]. What exactly is this car, and does it have any recalls?

Claude decodes the VIN with auto_decode and pulls recalls with auto_recalls. Recall lists are issued by model and year, so they can include recalls that don't apply to this car. Ours for a 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS includes one written for the 911 Speedster and 2020 Carrera models. To know whether this car still needs a repair, ask for its open recalls (auto_open_recalls).

Decoding is on Free, recall lists on Growth and open recalls on Scale. If you ask for something your plan doesn't cover, the reply names the plan it needs, so Claude can tell you.

Selling: write the listing for your current car

My car's VIN is [paste the VIN]. Pull its factory options, look at similar cars listed near 75201, and write my Facebook Marketplace listing. Leave the price and mileage for me to fill in.

Claude reads the car's build data with auto_build and searches listings for comparable asking prices. The build data is what makes this better than a listing written from memory. For a 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (VIN WP0AF2A99KS165242), it returns:

• GT Silver Metallic paint over a Black interior
• 4.0L flat-six with 520 hp and a 7-speed PDK transmission
• Factory options: Chrono Package with Preparation For Lap Trigger, Front Axle Lift System, and Wheels Painted in Satin Platinum
• $8,950 in options when new

Those details are easy to leave out of a listing you write yourself, and they're what buyers search for. Build data is on Growth.

What it can't do

• Tell you what a car is worth. It sees dealer asking prices, not sale prices, private sales or price history.
• Replace a history report. There are no accident records, owner counts or title brands here.
• Search outside the US. Listings come from US dealers.

Claude can also slip when it summarizes, so open the links for the cars you care about before you drive anywhere.