It turns out it's quite cushy to tell which of the two doable throttle pedals your late-model Toyota was built with. Pedals prefabricated by CTS are subject to the recall, those prefabricated by Denso are not. We walked downstairs to our own parking garage yesterday to have a look at Toyotas owned by Edmunds employees. 

For many of the Toyota vehicles on the list, you don't even have to look: 100% of them were built in North USA and therefore have the pedal in question. The position of the other cars on the list comes down to whether the car was built in Nihon or North America. This is easily determined by looking at a single digit in the VIN.

It's all cut and dry by VIN until you come to the Camry. U.S.-built examples of those vehicles have been built with both pedals, so a simple visual inspection of the pedal itself as shown above is necessary to see whether owners should expect to see a recall notice in the mail in the coming weeks.

More details about VINs and larger photos of the two pedals can be found after the jump.

The following cars are 100 percent North American-built and use the locally sourced CTS pedals exclusively. All owners will receive a recall notice.

This next group of vehicles are prefabricated in Nihon and North America. The Asian plants use the locally prefabricated Denso part, while the the NA plants use the affected CTS part. The first digit of a Japan-made car's VIN will be the letter "J." Those prefabricated in North USA will have a numeral as the leading digit. Owners of the following vehicles will get a recall notice if their car's VIN does not start with "J."

The one exception to all of this VIN-based certainty is the so-called "4T1" Camry. Those cars might have either of the two pedals, so an inspection is required to tell if a given car is part of the recall or not.

Edmunds employee Al's 2007 Camry has the "4T1" VIN sequence. A quick look under the dash reveals a Denso pedal. The four bolts that hold the assembly together are obvious, but the biggest and most conclusive giveaway is the word "DENSO" stamped clearly for all to see.

Bob's 2010 Camry also has a VIN that begins with "4T1" but his pedal looks quite different. There are no obvious bolts holding it together and two metal plates cover the innards. There's a part number and some other notations, but the manufacturer's study does not appear. This, therefore, is the "other" pedal, the one subject to the recall action.

None of the employee cars I inspected with the recalled pedals had the slightest hint of a problem — all operated smoothly and returned swiftly when released. Some of them were several years old with tens of thousands of miles, too.

That's to be expected, because the problem is still a rare development. A lot of cars are involved in the recall because Toyota needs to call in all of the cars with the suspect pedal to be absolutely sure a sticky throttle doesn't develop on more cars in the future.

It's worth noting that this new pedal issue does not replace the previously announced floormat interference recall. That issue is still in play for a different set of Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

The papers are signed and the agreement is done. Nissan has sealed the deal on a Department of Transportation loan that will be used to modify Nissan's Smyrna, TN plant for production of the Leaf electric car and the lithium-ion batteries that will power it.

According to the press release, the plant will be capable of producing 150,000 Leafs a year and 200,000 batteries a year when fully operational.

Hope it works. That's a pretty big chunk of change to hand over for a completely unproven product. Then again, both Fisker and Tesla got half a billion apiece for cars that don't exist yet, so we'll see who pulls through first.

Revealed: Nissan Leaf Electric Car

He hasn't even started his comeback season yet and Michael Schumacher is already hinting that he may drive beyond his 3-year contract with Mercedes.

According to an article on ESPN, Schumacher told reporters, "It doesn't have to be the end after three years – the three-year deal was Mercedes' intent and it was a sign of confidence. I thought about everything very carefully: Am I just spontaneously high or will my enthusiasm last? I have been excited for quite some time and can imagine doing this for a few years."

Well, we can all imagine driving Formula One for years, whether or not he'll actually be healthy to pull it off is quite another matter.

ESPN

Yep, Volkswagen is getting it's very own performance division just like the big boys. At least that's what a Volkswagen executive told Inside Line at a press event recently.

"BMW has its M, Mercedes has AMG, and our sibling Audi has Quattro. This new R division will be our Quattro," the executive said.

The new division will be an expansion of the current Volkswagen Individual group already in Europe.

InsideLine News: VW Setting Up New R Performance Group

And Toyota thought it had it bad today. Come tomorrow morning it's going to get even worse as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is planning to oppose at the Asian Embassy in Washington D.C. over Toyota's plans to close New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI).

"After receiving millions in the taxpayer-funded Cash for Clunkers bailout, Toyota plans to close its New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) assembly plant in Fremont, CA, which will mean a loss of 5,400 direct jobs and up to 50,000 jobs at suppliers and other supporting businesses. This would be the biggest works layoff in California since the beginning of the recession. Toyota is also endangering 5,000 middle class jobs in the carhaul industry."

Hmmm…think the Teamsters are attempting to pile on a bit here?

Detroit Free Press: Unions to rally against Toyota

GM isn't wasting any time taking advantage of Toyota's weakened position after its massive recall and sales stoppage. The General has just announced new incentives for current Toyota customers.

In a phone call to Inside Line, a GM official said the new offer consists of zero percent financing for 60 months on most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models. Cash buyers get $1,000 toward a down payment and lease customers can get a relinquishment of three payments up to $1,000.

To remember for the incentives, customers must show proof that they own or lease a Toyota.

This is starting to get interesting.

As usual the U.S. market is a few steps behind when it comes to Mazda. This refreshed version of the Mazda6 is headed for a debut at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show in March. The Asian get to sample it even early as it's just gone on understanding in Nihon as the Atenza.

Other than a few minor styling updates, the biggest news emerging from this update is the installation of Mazda's new "Sky G" four-cylinder engine in a production vehicle. Mazda claims that this new direct-injected wonder will get roughly 15% better mileage than its current family of four-cylinders. No word yet when the U.S. will get in on the action, but it shouldn't be long.

With less than two weeks to go until the Super Bowl, expect to see more of this pregame pimping for ads that cost a giant chunk of change for their respective companies.

You may have heard of this little Toyota recall and the subsequent stoppage of sales it has caused. If you somehow avoided the massive media onslaught last night, don't worry it will continue for the next several weeks, or until Toyota gets it act together and fixes the problem.

So far one of the most difficult questions to answer is why Lexus and Scion vehicles aren't affected given how much they have in common with their Toyota counterparts. It's quite simple really, but for a far more complex discussion of the issue, we turned to our very own Director of Vehicle Testing, Dan Edmunds, for a complete rundown on what's going on.

Dan explains after the jump.
 

Toyota's most recent throttle-related recall has to do with the throttle pedal assembly. This assembly consists of the actual pedal itself, a hinge, an electronic pickup that measures how far the pedal has been pressed, a strong "return spring" that pushes the pedal back to zero when you relax your foot and, finally, a damping mechanism intended to give the pedal a "natural" feel by taking the edge off the spring's tendency to snap the throttle pedal up alarmingly. This mechanism is similar in intent to those that prevent doors or kitchen cabinets from slamming shut, but on a far more subtle level. It is this damping mechanism that is at the root of the problem.

Over time, the friction of the mechanism may get too high and cause the pedal to hang up or return too slowly. Time, temperature and humidity conditions are thought to affect whether the problem develops or not, but the exact worst-case combination of these factors has not yet been pinpointed.

But not all pedals are susceptible because the internal details of the how the device is ordered out differ slightly between the two parts suppliers that supply throttle pedals to Toyota, Scion and Lexus assembly lines. In general, Denso of Nihon supplies throttle pedal assemblies for Japan-built vehicles and CTS of Canada supplies the part to vehicles built in the US and Canada. It's a simple matter of logistics and shipping costs.

Scion and Lexus vehicles are not on the recall list simply because these cars are imported from Asian plants where Denso pedals are exclusively used. The one exception is the Lexus RX: It is built in Canada, but the pedals used there reportedly come from Denso.
 
The Toyota Tundra, Sequoia, Avalon, the Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe are/were built exclusively in North American Toyota plants. If the model year matches the range specified in the recall notice these cars and trucks absolutely will have the CTS pedal assembly in question.

Camrys, Corollas, the RAV4 and the Highlander can be built in either North USA or imported from Japan. Those built in Nihon use the Denso pedal assembly and are not subject to the recall; those built in North USA use the CTS pedal and are included in the recall. Japan-built models will have a VIN number starting with "JT", North American-built cars will start with a numeral instead of the letter "J".

But the Camry case is a bit more complicated. They build so many in the US plant that both Denso and CTS pedal assemblies are used to maintain the supply. The Camry Hybrid and Japanese-built "JT" Camrys do not use the CTS pedal in question. Some US-built Camrys use Denso, while others use CTS. For the Camry, an inspection by a dealer is needed to sort it out.

It's worth noting that the detail dimensions of these pedal assemblies (throttle pedal length, the angle at which it protrudes and the attaches to the car, and other factors) will differ subtly between apiece listed vehicle. A Denso pedal from a Lexus ES350, for example, may not fit in an affected Corolla.

Remember Mercury? It's sort of like the Buick of Ford. Expect for all the new product. 

It's been slowly swirling the drain for some time now, yet various Ford officials keep meekly voicing support for the brand. This despite the fact that the last new Mercury product shown at an auto show was the refreshed Milan — in 2008.

Just yesterday AutoObserver Senior Editor, Bill Visnic, was at the Washington D.C. auto show yesterday where he observed the following:

CEO Alan Mulally was asked if the company's Mercury brand has a future. It is a question that comes up a lot lately.

Mulally seemingly backed Mercury full-go, but was careful to remember his support. Not once, but twice.

'The plan right now is (to develop) Ford, Lincoln and Mercury,' Mulally answered. He said Ford is working to more effectively position Mercury with smaller vehicles that occupy the void between the mainstream Ford brand and Lincoln, which directly targets the luxury-premium market. "That's our plan – to continuously improve the Mercury and Lincoln brands," Mulally said.

But after a little more discussion, Mulally felt compelled to reiterate: 'That's the plan right now.'

No, Mulally didn't draw imaginary quotation marks in the air when he said 'right now,' but his careful enduringness in emphasizing the qualifier palpably left room for Ford – and Mulally – to change course anytime about Mercury, which more than a few analysts and skeptics continue to insist should be done. - Bill Visnic, senior editor, Edmunds AutoObserver