The Scenario
You are a used-car dealership manager. Your buyer just acquired 90 vehicles at a fleet auction. The auction sheet gave you VINs in column A of a Google Sheet and nothing else. Before the listings go live on your website, you need make, model, year, and manufacturing country for every row, plus MPG and fuel type for the ones that don't already have stickers.
Your listing deadline is tomorrow at noon. Your parts manager can do the VIN lookups manually, but he estimates it will take four hours and he has other work.
The bad version:
- Parts manager opens the NHTSA VIN decoder, enters VIN one, reads the response, copies make into column B, model into column C, year into column D
- He does ten rows, realizes the format varies, goes back to fix column alignment
- By row thirty he starts copy-pasting in batches and missing the manufacturing country field entirely
- At noon tomorrow he hands you a sheet with 90 rows and 40 blanks.
The one-prompt version is done before lunch.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI is an AI agent inside your spreadsheet. It reads the VIN column and calls the API Ninjas VIN decode endpoint for each row, then calls the vehicle specs endpoint to add MPG, transmission, and fuel type.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Decode every VIN in column A using API Ninjas and write make, model, year, and manufacturing country into columns B through E. Then for each vehicle, fetch MPG, transmission type, and fuel type from API Ninjas and add them to columns F through H.
SheetXAI calls the VIN decode endpoint for all 90 rows, writes the four profile fields, then calls the specs endpoint and adds the three fuel and transmission fields.
What You Get
A complete vehicle inventory sheet ready for your listing tool:
- Column B: Make — manufacturer name
- Column C: Model — specific model
- Column D: Year — model year from the VIN
- Column E: Manufacturing country — as decoded from the VIN
- Column F: MPG — combined fuel economy
- Column G: Transmission type — automatic, manual, CVT
- Column H: Fuel type — gasoline, diesel, hybrid, electric
Ninety rows decoded and specced in one prompt. Your parts manager spends the morning doing actual parts work.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Auction sheets always have edge cases. SheetXAI handles them inline.
When some VINs are malformed or non-standard
Older vehicles and some imports have non-standard 17-character VIN formats.
Decode every VIN in column A using API Ninjas. If a VIN returns an error or returns fewer than four fields, write "VIN ERROR" in column B and leave C–E blank so I can review those rows manually.
When you want to group by make for the website upload
Your listing tool uploads by make, so you need the sheet sorted and grouped.
After decoding all VINs, sort the sheet by column B (make) ascending, then by column D (year) descending within each make. Add a blank separator row between each make group.
When you want to flag high-MPG vehicles for a "fuel efficient" badge
Your listing template supports a "Fuel Efficient" badge for vehicles above 30 MPG.
After writing MPG into column F, add a "Fuel Efficient" label in column I for any row where column F is above 30. Leave column I blank for everything else.
When the full listing-prep run is one prompt
Ninety VINs, decode, specs, error flagging, sorted by make, and fuel efficiency badges all before you hand the sheet to the listing team.
Decode every VIN in column A via API Ninjas and write make, model, year, and manufacturing country into columns B–E. If a VIN errors, write "VIN ERROR" in column B. Fetch MPG, transmission, and fuel type and write into columns F–H. Add "Fuel Efficient" in column I where MPG is above 30. Sort by column B ascending, then column D descending within each make. Add a blank separator row between make groups.
The pattern: two API Ninjas calls per row, error handling, sorting, and a derived flag all in one instruction.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any vehicle inventory sheet, then ask SheetXAI to decode VINs and add specs using API Ninjas. The API Ninjas integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. See also how to enrich an EV fleet with battery and range data or the API Ninjas in Google Sheets overview.