assess_repair_economics

Repair economics · Read-only

Weigh a quoted repair against the vehicle's worth and return an economic band — with the Black Book trade-in range for licensed shop accounts.

Usage

MOTOR supplies what the repair costs; a licensed valuation provider (Black Book) supplies what the vehicle is worth; this tool is the comparison between them. The answer is a band — proceed, caution, uneconomic, or unavailable — plus caveats that are part of the answer, not decoration.

Who receives the figures depends on the caller. A licensed shop account (OAuth) receives what the advisor's own screen shows: tradeInValue — the Black Book trade-in range the band was decided on, rough to average condition, with the basis (adjusted for odometer and region, or base) and whether mileage was applied — plus repairCostCents (the total weighed) and ratio, with valuesWithheld: false and an attribution to repeat alongside any figure quoted. Quote the value as a range, never a single number.

A self-serve developer key receives the band only, with valuesWithheld: true: valuations are licensed content, and a ratio plus a known numerator would reconstruct the licensed figure exactly. When values are withheld, do not ask the user to fill the gap and do not estimate one.

unavailable is a real and common answer (no valuation match, out-of-coverage vehicle, no repair total). Report it as "the comparison could not be made" — it never means the vehicle is worthless. The verdict is information, not a decision: it does not authorise, refuse, or recommend anything.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`vin`	string	Yes	The vehicle's VIN — full 17 characters, or the 9- or 10-character partial forms. This is the ONLY vehicle identifier these tools accept: it is the one key both MOTOR and Black Book understand. Do NOT pass a baseVehicleId (MOTOR's identifier) or a uvc (Black Book's) here. Example: "2HGFA1F5A"
`repairCostCents`	positive integer	Yes	The repair being weighed, in integer cents — the SELECTED total from a service_advisor_lookup, never the sum of the candidate menu. Example: 177000 for a $1,770.00 repair
`mileage`	positive integer	No	Current odometer reading in miles. Strongly recommended: without it the valuation assumes normal mileage for the model year, and a high-mileage vehicle is worth materially less than that. Example: 62000
`state`	string	No	US state abbreviation or ZIP for regional adjustment. The shop's location is a reasonable default. Example: "48226"

Description advertised to clients

The exact description a fully entitled MCP client discovers — the workflow contracts travel with the tool, so a client with no system prompt still uses it correctly. An account missing a licence for content this tool reaches sees the same text behind a [Licensed content — not enabled on this account] or [Partially available] notice:

Weigh a quoted repair against what the vehicle is worth, and return an economic band. MOTOR supplies what the repair costs; a valuation provider supplies what the vehicle is worth; this tool is the comparison between them, for a vehicle identified by VIN. Returns {band, label, headline, detail, caveats, vehicle, confidence, valuesWithheld} and, for a licensed shop account, {tradeInValue, repairCostCents, ratio, attribution}. band is one of: "proceed" (the repair is a small share of the vehicle's value), "caution" (a material share — worth a conversation before booking), "uneconomic" (more than the share at which insurers write a vehicle off), or "unavailable". tradeInValue is the Black Book trade-in range the band was decided on — rough to average condition, low to high — with the basis (adjusted for the odometer and region, or base) and whether mileage was applied; ratio is the repair as a share of that range. Quote them as a range, never as a single figure, and repeat the attribution. Read the caveats out; they are not decoration. They state when no odometer was applied, when the two vendors disagree about the trim, and that valuations are by trim rather than by individual car. "unavailable" is a real and common answer — no valuation match, a vehicle outside the provider's coverage, or no repair total supplied. Report it as "the comparison could not be made"; it never means the vehicle is worthless, and the repair estimate itself is unaffected. THE VERDICT IS INFORMATION, NOT A DECISION. It does not authorise, refuse, or recommend anything. Never tell a user their vehicle should be scrapped, written off, or abandoned on the strength of this result, and never present it as advice — a shop and its customer make that call with context this tool does not have. Vehicle valuations are licensed content (Black Book). Who receives the figures depends on the caller: a licensed shop account (OAuth) receives the trade-in value range, the repair total weighed, and the share of value, with valuesWithheld false and an attribution to repeat alongside any figure you quote. A self-serve developer key receives the BAND only — valuesWithheld true, no dollar figures, no percentages. When valuesWithheld is true, do not ask the user for the vehicle's value to fill the gap, do not estimate one, and do not present a figure of your own as though it came from here. Vehicle resolution runs through MOTOR's evaluation sandbox, which covers model years 2010, 2015, and 2016 ONLY — a VIN outside those years will not resolve. That is sandbox coverage, not an error, and not a fact about the vehicle.

Example — A $1,770 repair on a 2010 Civic

Example for a licensed shop account; the figures are the live valuation of this vehicle on 2026-09-17. A developer key receives the same response without tradeInValue, repairCostCents, ratio or attribution, and with valuesWithheld: true.

Request

{
  "vin": "2HGFA1F5A",
  "repairCostCents": 177000,
  "mileage": 62000,
  "state": "MI"
}

Response

{
  "band": "caution",
  "label": "Worth a conversation",
  "headline": "This repair is a material share of the vehicle's value.",
  "detail": "The repair is 57.2% to 95.9% of the vehicle's trade-in value, depending on its condition. Worth raising with the customer before booking the work.",
  "caveats": [
    "Black Book values by trim, not by individual car — condition, history, and options are not reflected.",
    "In poorer condition this repair would fall into the next band up. The figure shown takes the more favourable reading."
  ],
  "mileageApplied": true,
  "confidence": "corroborated",
  "vehicle": "2010 Honda Civic LX",
  "uvc": "2010360047",
  "tradeInValue": {
    "market": "tradein",
    "lowCents": 184500,
    "highCents": 309500,
    "low": "$1,845",
    "high": "$3,095",
    "condition": {
      "low": "rough",
      "high": "average"
    },
    "basis": "adjusted",
    "mileageApplied": true
  },
  "repairCostCents": 177000,
  "ratio": {
    "lowBps": 5719,
    "highBps": 9593,
    "low": "57.2%",
    "high": "95.9%"
  },
  "valuesWithheld": false,
  "attribution": "Values supplied by Black Book®. ©2026 Hearst Business Media Corp. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Black Book® is a registered trademark of Hearst Business Media Corp."
}