Vehicle data services
Find parts for my car: reg lookup and vehicle selector widget for parts stores
A 'find parts for my car' widget is the first thing a parts buyer looks for, and it decides whether they trust the fit. We build parts finders that take a reg or a year/make/model/engine selection, resolve it to a K-Type, remember the vehicle and filter every category, search and product page to parts that fit.
The widget has two front doors and one back door. Front door one is the reg box: enter a VRM, and a licensed lookup returns the vehicle and a K-Type. Front door two is the selector: make, model, year, then engine or derivative, for customers without the reg to hand, for imports, and for anything a UK lookup cannot resolve. The back door is the same in both cases: a K-Type (or N-Type for vans) that the catalogue understands, so the customer's Golf becomes a filter on every listing.
The selector is harder than it looks. Its options have to be generated from the same K-Type table the fitment uses, otherwise a customer picks '2.0 TDI' from a list and the catalogue has parts linked to three different 2.0 TDI K-Types. We derive the selector tree from TecDoc vehicle data (or your bespoke fitment tables where TecDoc has no coverage), collapse variants that share every linkage, and prompt for engine code or chassis range only when the parts genuinely differ.
Once the vehicle is chosen it should follow the customer everywhere: a My Garage in the header and account, a 'Fits your Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi' badge on product cards, category pages pre-filtered, search results ranked by fit, and a warning at add-to-basket when a part does not match. On Shopify that is a theme app extension with metafields and cart attributes; on WooCommerce a plugin and session; on Magento a module with a customer-session vehicle and layered-navigation filter. The same K-Type then feeds your eBay compatibility so the marketplace and the site never disagree.
How it works
End to end
- 01
Capture the VRM or the selection
Normalise and validate the registration against UK formats (current, prefix, suffix, dateless, NI), or walk the customer through make, model, year and engine from a selector tree generated from the K-Type table.
- 02
VRM to vehicle record
A licensed provider (VDG/UKVD, cap hpi, One Auto API) returns make, model, derivative, body, fuel, engine cc and kW, engine code, transmission, drive, build-date range, partial or full VIN, often a cap ID and, critically, a TecDoc K-Type or list of candidates.
- 03
Resolve ambiguity
Where several K-Types come back for one VRM, disambiguate by engine code, VIN prefix or kW, or ask: 'Is your car the 1.6 TDI 105 or 110?' Never silently pick the first.
- 04
K-Type to applicable articles
Query your catalogue (licensed TecDoc data, TecDoc Web Services or MAM Autocat) for articles linked to the K-Type, filtered by product group and linkage criteria such as chassis range, PR code and fitting position.
- 05
Articles to your SKUs
Map by supplier article number plus brand, OE cross-reference or GTIN to the products you actually stock, including bespoke fitment lines that never touched TecDoc.
- 06
Present with the criteria
Show 'Fits your [make model derivative]' and surface the conditions the customer must confirm: left or right, front or rear, from chassis number, up to build month.
- 07
Persist and reuse
Store the vehicle in session and account (My Garage), expose it to search, category and product pages, and pass the K-Type into your eBay and Amazon listing tools for marketplace consistency.
Deliverables
What you get
- Reg lookup box and year/make/model/engine selector, styled to your theme and accessible
- Selector tree generated from your K-Type and bespoke fitment tables
- Lookup service with caching, rate limiting and provider fallback
- Ambiguity prompts for engine code and chassis-range splits
- My Garage persistence across session, account and checkout
- Fitment filters on category, search and product pages, with 'Fits your vehicle' badges and add-to-basket warnings
- Analytics: lookups, selector completions, fit-filtered conversion
- K-Type export to eBay and Amazon listing tools
Data sources
Providers we integrate
We are provider-neutral: we pick the source that fits your budget, licensing position and the fields you actually need.
| Source | What it returns | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UK Vehicle Data / Vehicle Data Global (VDG) | DVLA identity fields plus make, model, derivative, engine code, partial VIN, build data and a TecDoc K-Type. | Per-lookup billing; Vehicle Data (UK) listed at £0.153 PAYG or £0.081 on subscription, ex VAT (published price, check current). Cache by VRM and date. |
| cap hpi (Solera) | VRM lookup licensed direct from DVLA, cap IDs, spec and options, tyre data via Carweb. | Pricing on quotation. Preferred where you also need cap IDs or tyre sizes by reg. |
| TecDoc (TecAlliance) | The K-Type and N-Type vehicle tables the selector is built from, plus article linkages with criteria; VRM-to-TecDoc-type lookup via TecAlliance partners. | Licensed per data package and per country, or via TecDoc Web Services. Coverage is thin or absent for performance, classic, kit-car and many motorcycle lines. |
| MAM Autocat / Autopart | VRM-driven trade catalogue aggregating supplier data; TecDoc to Autocat conversion. | An option for factors and retailers already running MAM, so the web finder and the trade counter return the same answer. |
| eBay Master Vehicle List (UK) | eBay's per-site vehicle list keyed on K-Type for listing compatibility. | Licensed only for matching to eBay listings. Do not use it as the source for your on-site selector; build that from TecDoc or your own tables. |
Data quality
Where this goes wrong, and what we do about it
Duplicate or sibling K-Types: the lookup returns a superseded K-Type and the finder shows parts that almost fit.
Keep the candidate list, map superseded K-Types forward, and prompt where linkages differ between siblings.
Engine-code ambiguity: two engines of the same capacity share a VRM-level description but take different parts.
Ask the customer for the engine code (it is on the V5C) only when the product group needs it, and remember the answer in My Garage.
Chassis-number and build-month splits that the widget cannot resolve because VIN was never captured.
Capture VIN or build month from the lookup where the provider returns it, and show the split as a confirmation step rather than hiding it.
Free-text DVLA model names ('GOLF', 'GOLF GT TDI 140') used to pre-select the selector, landing on the wrong node.
Pre-select from the provider's derivative and K-Type, never from the DVLA model string.
Imports and NI plates return no K-Type and a dead end.
Detect and route straight to the selector with a clear message, and never show a fit badge without a resolved K-Type.
Selector options built from product data rather than the vehicle table, so lists are incomplete and inconsistent between categories.
Generate the tree from the K-Type table, then mark nodes with no stocked parts rather than omitting them.
Proof
Work like this
Kitspares · 2015
A parts store built for people who build their own cars
Milner Off Road · 2015
Best-seller landing pages for a 4x4 specialist that ships worldwide
Parts Finder Widget: common questions
How does a 'find parts for my car' widget work?
The customer enters a reg or picks make, model, year and engine. The reg resolves via a licensed lookup to a TecDoc K-Type; the selector resolves to one directly. The catalogue returns articles linked to that K-Type, mapped to your SKUs, and remembers the vehicle for the visit.
Do I need both a reg lookup and a year/make/model selector?
Yes, for a UK store. The reg box converts best, but the selector covers customers without the reg, imports, NI and Isle of Man plates, and vehicles the lookup cannot resolve. Both must land on the same K-Type table or the two paths will disagree.
Can the parts finder work on Shopify?
Yes. Shopify needs a small app with an app proxy for the server-side lookup, a theme app extension for the widget, and metafields plus cart attributes to carry the vehicle. Fitment filtering uses product metafields or tags derived from K-Types.
What is My Garage?
The stored vehicle (or vehicles) attached to the customer's session and account, shown in the header and used to filter categories, search and product pages, badge products that fit, and warn at add-to-basket when a part does not match.
What if my parts are not in TecDoc?
Performance, classic, kit-car, chassis-split 4x4 and many motorcycle lines are not. We build bespoke fitment tables in the same shape as TecDoc linkages so the finder, the selector and your eBay compatibility all run from one dataset.
Will the finder cut returns?
Mis-fitment is a leading cause of parts returns, and a finder that resolves the exact K-Type and shows the fitting criteria removes most of the guesswork. We do not quote a figure for your store; we measure it after launch against your own returns data.
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Scope parts finder widget for your platform
Tell us your platform, your data provider (if you have one) and what the customer should be able to do. We will come back with a fixed-price scope and an honest view of the data licensing.