CarVector vs Mercedes-Benz

CarVector decodes VINs and license plates into specs, images, recall notices, and OBD-II DTC codes for vehicles spanning model years 1925 to 2029. A live unauthenticated GET against its real API host, api.carvector.io/v1/vehicles/{id}, returned a 401 "missing_api_key" JSON error over HTTPS — reconfirming auth "API Key" and https true — with no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header on either that request or a follow-up OPTIONS preflight, resolving the stored "yes" cors to "no". Its pricing page lists a $0 Free tier alongside paid $39/mo and $79/mo plans plus a custom Enterprise tier — freemium.

Mercedes-Benz's connected-vehicle API platform exposes telematics data, remote vehicle commands, a car configurator, and dealer-locator lookups behind an OAuth2 client-credentials/authorization-code flow — its own docs describe exchanging a Base64-encoded Client ID/Secret for a bearer token, correcting the stored auth from "API Key" to "OAuth". A live unauthenticated GET against the real api.mercedes-benz.com gateway returned no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header on any endpoint tested, reconfirming cors "no" — consistent with Mercedes-Benz's own documentation that the API doesn't support direct browser calls; https was reconfirmed. The platform offers a free sandbox/BYOCAR tier for testing against simulated and real vehicles, plus paid production tiers per API product — freemium.