9999 pseudo-year for equipment records

A sentinel model-year value NHTSA uses in place of a year for non-vehicle equipment such as tires, which have no model year.

Any recall query loop must handle 9999 alongside the real years 1949-2027.

In this catalog it appears concretely: - NHTSA Vehicle Safety API coverage — "Recall model years 1949-2027 plus a 9999 pseudo-year for equipment/tire records". - NHTSA Vehicle Safety API estimated_size — "80 distinct model years offered by the recalls modelYear endpoint (1949-2027 plus 9999)".

NHTSA Vehicle Safety API estimated_size is the second reference point worth knowing: "80 distinct model years offered by the recalls modelYear endpoint (1949-2027 plus 9999)". Reading the two together shows how much variation sits underneath one shared label.

A table is only as good as the column you actually need. If this field is absent, sparsely populated or defined inconsistently across rows, no amount of surrounding richness rescues the analysis, so it deserves its own line in your evaluation checklist.

The failure mode is concrete: a source can carry the 9999 pseudo-year for equipment records label while differing from what you need on exactly the dimension that matters — Recall model years 1949-2027 plus a 9999 pseudo-year for equipment/tire records. Comparing two sources on that line usually settles the choice faster than any feature matrix.

You rarely have to take a vendor's word for it. 82.4% of the 1,744 datasets Datadory catalogs are free to access, and NHTSA Vehicle Safety API coverage lets you inspect the real artifact before any budget is committed.

Treat every claim of this attribute as testable:

1. Open NHTSA Vehicle Safety API coverage and confirm its record — "Recall model years 1949-2027 plus a 9999 pseudo-year for equipment/tire records" — against the files you actually receive. 2. Open NHTSA Vehicle Safety API estimated_size and confirm its record — "80 distinct model years offered by the recalls modelYear endpoint (1949-2027 plus 9999)" — against the files you actually receive. 3. Pin down update cadence in writing.

Adjacent concepts worth reading next: - odi complaint archive - recall campaign