Hey, Toyota: Someone else fixed my car.

Talk about lousy service at Toyota dealerships.  I've already posted regarding the unevenness in my rebuilt engine, the Check Engine light coming on, and the fact that I took my MR2 Spyder to the Toyota Center several times attempting to have these things corrected.  Their "senior mechanic" plugged in his diagnostic tool and suggested that I add bottles of moisture remover to my gas tank.  Of course, this didn't work, I finally quit going back, and the Check Engine light has remained on for a long time. 

Matters got resolved a few weeks ago when the hood release once again failed to operate (turns out that even though a Technical Service Bulletin was issued, neither Dick Dyer Toyota nor the Toyota Center were able to fix it), and I had to find someone who could get my hood open.  Determined not to take my car to a Toyota dealership, I found an independent repair shop, asked them to fix the hood release, and didn't even mention the other problems because I had pretty much given up on ever gettin' the car to run right.  But lo and behold, these folks took an interest in the car, asked me about the Check Engine light, and to make a long story short, the car now runs like it should for the first time since I bought it.  Smooth all the way to the redline, 'bout twice as fast, and no Check Engine light glaring in my face.  Cost about $800 but well worth it.  Thrilled, I am - even though these things should have been corrected when Toyota rebuilt the engine.

Whatsamatter, Toyota?  Are your dealers really that incompetent? Apparently so.  But at least I got a good laugh out of it when I saw you were offering  free service as a sales incentive.  'Cause that's exactly what your lousy service is worth.  Absolutely nothin'.

Update: Yesterday (7/20/2010) I posted a tweet referencing this post and this morning Twitter has censored my tweets from appearing in real-time.  Toyota must be gettin' nervous with all this talk of a widening federal grand jury investigation.  Look out, Toyota.  Your defective products are finally gettin' exposed.

Update 7/21/2010 5:29 PM This blog post has also been censored by Facebook.  It appears on FB Home, Profile and Posts by Friends, but not on Posts by Everyone.  Re Twitter, I'm apparently unblocked - at least for now.