Hello!
Last week we released a new integration for Auto-Data API.
Auto-Data API can be used in a car dealer website, a marketplace, or any classified website where people can buy and sell cars.
It’s a new and important feature because it lets the website owners and users publish and search for vehicles without maintaining and updating the vehicle information (Brand, model, and generation).
Auto-Data in 2026: how it works today and how to set up a car marketplace around it
The Auto-Data integration is still part of every Yclas site, including the default Nova theme. You find it under Panel > Integrations > Auto-Data, and the current step-by-step guide is in the Yclas docs (Vehicle data). To turn it on you need an API token from Auto-Data. If your token is rejected, contact Yclas support, as the docs also advise.
What turning it on actually does
- Three linked fields are created for you: Brand, Model and Generation. All three are required, searchable and shown on the listing. Picking a brand fills the Model list, and picking a model fills the Generation list.
- Buyers get the same dropdowns in search, so "Volkswagen > Golf > Golf VIII" matches every ad exactly, with no typos and no "VW" versus "Volkswagen" duplicates.
- The fields apply to the whole site by default. If you also list parts, services or anything other than vehicles, limit the three fields to your vehicle categories straight away. Otherwise a seller posting a phone charger will be asked for a car brand.
Know the limits of the vehicle list
The brand, model and generation lists Yclas serves come from a copy of Auto-Data's catalogue stored on our side, not a live lookup. As of October 2026 it holds 282 brands, 2,706 models and about 7,400 generations, and its newest generations are from 2021 and 2022. For comparison, Auto-Data's API page now lists more than 350 brands, 3,500 models and 10,000 generations. In practice the list covers most of the used-car market well, but some recent models may be missing. A simple safeguard is to add your own optional fields for Year and Version / trim, so sellers of newer cars can still describe them precisely. Add Mileage, Fuel and Transmission too, which buyers filter on most.
Why structured vehicle data matters more now
Used cars remain a huge, mostly online-researched market. Cox Automotive forecasts 20.3 million US retail used-vehicle sales in 2026, 0.7% below 2025 (Cox Automotive, 16 January 2026). Its 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study (13 January 2026) found that 77% of used-vehicle buyers visited third-party websites while shopping, and 11% visited AI websites such as ChatGPT. Those buyers compare listings side by side and filter hard, so clean brand, model and generation values are what put a car in front of them. Free-text titles do that badly.
If you are starting a local car classifieds site or a dealer marketplace, settle the vehicle fields before the first ads arrive. Changing the structure later means asking every seller to edit their listings.
You can read more in our guides.
