Grrrrr!

Almost everyone who knows me learns very quickly how I feel about my car.  I love my car.  I have a Toyota Solara convertible.  I love convertibles and I have always had good luck with Toyota's so it was only fitting that my upgrade vehicle would be a Toyota convertible.  It's a Camry so it's got a very nice, large back seat and is more luxurious than the other cars in it's class, but it's not the Audi or the Saab.  No matter, though,  it's a convertible and it's mine.  I have had the car for three years now and have been happy with it. 

However, over the past two weeks i have gone from loving my car to hating my car.  Since I had the car, there have been a few little things that have bothered me, but nothing that i found bothersome enough to dislike the car.  Things like the fact that you can't open the trunk without the key.  There is no trunk opener inside the car so the car not only has to be parked but turned off so you can open the trunk with the button on the key chain.  I didn't find this out until the first time I went to the airport and they made me "pop the trunk".  It was all this drama because the trunk doesn't open from the inside of the car.  Still, not a really big deal and when i travel, i have gotten used to turning off the engine so i can open the trunk.  The other thing is the remote entry key itself.  The button to unlock/lock the doors is positioned in such a way on the remote that when you press it, your other finger triggers the alarm button that is on the back of the remote.  It takes some fancy finger work not to set off the alarm every time i lock/unlock the door.  Again, not bothersome enough to dislike the car.  I just worked around it. 

Then, there is this issue i have with the car pulling to the left after i get over 35 mph.  I have brought the car in 6 times, at least, just for the pulling alone.  They would "fix" it and i would be on my way, only to have the problem return the next day.  I finally stopped bringing it in, but I know that has to be part of the reason i am on my third set of tires.  Still love the car, but getting frustrated...

The last straw has been the convertible top itself.  I had to get a new top 2 days after i bought the car because it was not aligned right.  I would open the top and it would catch and bend before it opened.  They replaced the top and, although most of the time it was working fine, it's been happening more and more lately.  Well last week, the back window on the convertible top fell out.  It literally FELL OUT.  And it happened at the most inopportune time.  The night before i was supposed to fly out for another TDY.  So I had no time to go to the dealership to get it fixed.  I had to take the car to the airport on the interstate with it pulling to the left, stop the car and turn off the engine to "pop the trunk" when i got to the airport, and tape the damn rear window back into the convertible top like i live in a trailer park and pray it didn't rain during the next two weeks that i was going to be out of town.  I put a towel down on the rear seat just in case it rained and leaked.  

I got to my TDY, which happened to be in Orlando, and started looking up how much it was going to cost me to get the window fixed on my car.  That is when i discovered Pandora's Box.  Turns out, these problems are not just mine.  They are common among owners of the Toyota Solara convertible.  The more I researched, the more I began to hate my car.  I have even started looking into the Saab and the Audi (because I can't afford the BMW to be quite honest).  I still love convertibles and I have to say that I haven't had any issues with the engine/drive train/transmission at all.  But the number of things that have been going wrong lately have made me nuts. 

Stupid car.