Mario So Funny

SANTA MONICA, California — Inside Line has put together the following tutorial on how to determine if your Toyota is involved in the massive faulty-pedal recall:

It’s actually quite easy to tell which of the two possible throttle pedals your late-model Toyota was built with. Pedals made by CTS are subject to the recall, while those made by Denso are not.

For many of the Toyota vehicles on the list, you don’t even have to look: 100 percent of them were built in North America and therefore have the pedal in question. The status of the other cars on the list comes down to whether the car was built in Japan or North America. This is easily determined by looking at a single digit in the VIN (vehicle identification number).

It’s all cut and dried 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 is necessary to see whether or not owners should expect to receive a recall notice in the mail in the coming weeks.

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

The next group of vehicles was made in Japan and North America. The Japanese plants use the locally made Denso part, while the North America plants use the affected CTS part. The first digit of a Japan-made car’s VIN will be the letter “J.” Those made in North America 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 can have either of the two pedals, so an inspection is required to tell if a given car is part of the recall or not.

Inside Line says: Although Toyota says there’s no reason to stop driving your car while you wait for more recall information, most consumers will feel better knowing right away whether or not their car is likely to be on the list. — Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing