Code examples

export THECARAPI_KEY="your_key"

curl -sS --compressed \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THECARAPI_KEY" \
  "https://api.thecarapi.com/api/search?brand=bmw&fuel=Diesel&year_from=2018&sort=price_low&limit=24" \
  | jq '.results[] | {auction_id, site_name, clean_make, clean_model, public_price_eur}'

const BASE = "https://api.thecarapi.com";

interface SearchResponse {
  success: boolean;
  results: SearchCard[];
  total: number | null;
  limit: number;
  offset: number;
  max_page: number | null;
  random_seed: string | null;
  contract_version: string;
  request_id: string;
}

interface SearchCard {
  auction_id: number;
  site_name: string;
  clean_make: string;
  clean_model: string;
  registration_year: number;
  mileage: number;
  /** Prices are JSON numbers, never strings. */
  public_price_eur: number;
  thumbnail_url: string | null;
}

async function search(params: Record<string, string | number>): Promise<SearchResponse> {
  const url = `${BASE}/api/search?${new URLSearchParams(
    Object.entries(params).map(([k, v]) => [k, String(v)]),
  )}`;

  const res = await fetch(url, {
    headers: {
      "X-API-Key": process.env.THECARAPI_KEY!,
      "Accept-Encoding": "gzip",
    },
  });

  if (!res.ok) {
    throw new Error(`${res.status} — request ${res.headers.get("X-Request-ID")}`);
  }
  return res.json();
}

const page = await search({ brand: "bmw", fuel: "Diesel", limit: 24 });
console.log(page.results.length, "of", page.total);

import os
import requests

BASE = "https://api.thecarapi.com"

session = requests.Session()
session.headers.update({"X-API-Key": os.environ["THECARAPI_KEY"]})
# requests negotiates gzip and decompresses transparently.

response = session.get(
    f"{BASE}/api/search",
    params={"brand": "bmw", "fuel": "Diesel", "year_from": 2018, "limit": 24},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
payload = response.json()

for car in payload["results"]:
    print(car["site_name"], car["auction_id"], car["public_price_eur"])

<?php
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client([
    'base_uri'       => 'https://api.thecarapi.com',
    'headers'        => ['X-API-Key' => getenv('THECARAPI_KEY')],
    'decode_content' => 'gzip',   // Guzzle needs this told to it explicitly
    'timeout'        => 30,
]);

$response = $client->get('/api/search', [
    'query' => ['brand' => 'bmw', 'fuel' => 'Diesel', 'limit' => 24],
]);

$payload = json_decode((string) $response->getBody(), true);
foreach ($payload['results'] as $car) {
    printf("%s/%d — €%s\n", $car['site_name'], $car['auction_id'], $car['public_price_eur']);
}

def iter_results(session, **filters):
    """Yield every card, respecting the depth policy rather than guessing at it."""
    offset, limit = 0, 100
    while True:
        r = session.get(f"{BASE}/api/search",
                        params={**filters, "limit": limit, "offset": offset,
                                "include_total": "false"},
                        timeout=30)
        r.raise_for_status()
        rows = r.json()["results"]
        if not rows:
            return
        yield from rows
        offset += limit
        if offset >= 5000:      # public depth cap; read it from /api/contract
            return

let etag = null;
let cached = null;

async function poll(url) {
  const res = await fetch(url, {
    headers: {
      "X-API-Key": process.env.THECARAPI_KEY,
      ...(etag ? { "If-None-Match": etag } : {}),
    },
  });

  if (res.status === 304) return cached;   // nothing changed, no body transferred

  etag = res.headers.get("ETag");          // opaque — echo it back exactly
  cached = await res.json();
  return cached;
}

const { auction } = await getJson(`/api/auction/${site}/${id}`);

const photos = auction.vault_gallery?.images ?? [];
const stillComing = auction.vault_gallery?.pending ?? 0;   // render placeholders

const price = auction.public_price_eur;                     // already live if it could be
const asOf = auction.live_price
  ? new Date(auction.live_price.fetched_at * 1000)          // seconds → ms
  : null;

// Only if the refresh missed the request budget, read exactly once more.
if (!auction.live_price && auction.live_price_pending) {
  setTimeout(() => refetch(site, id), 2000);
}