I received your “biggest thank you ever” in the mail last week, and I just wanted you to know that while I appreciate the gesture, I’m gonna take a pass. I am a loyal Toyota owner (which you apparently knew already because you slapped the sales pitch “Toyota Owner Loyalty Information” on the front of the envelope in big red letters), but you have been testing my loyalty.

I bought my first Toyota, a used Corolla with about 35,000 miles on it, in 2000 and loved it. I put another 110,000 miles on it and had no major mechanical problems the whole time.

That experience convinced our family to buy a Sienna in 2007 when we needed to replace our long-time mechanically challenged Oldsmobile Silhouette. A little more than a year later, a teenager plowed through a stop sign and totaled my Corolla. I was bummed because I had hoped to get at least another three years out of the car based on its excellent track record, but once I settled the insurance claim, I bought another Corolla, a new 2009.

Your salesmen had me at hello both times.

But here’s the thing: I have purchased two new Toyotas in the past three years, and I’ve had significant mechanical problems both times.

The first was obvious almost immediately. The morning after we brought our Sienna home, I noticed a pink spot on the driveway. I took the van back to our dealer for an inspection, which confirmed what I had suspected — a faulty transmission. (Ironically, our salesman had boldly assured us when discussing Virginia’s “lemon law” that he had never had a car returned under the statute.)

The dealer handled the situation wonderfully. The manager found an identical Sienna from another dealer as a replacement and let me drive a rental until the exchange could be made. He also cut a few hundred dollars off the price of the van for the hassle and even gave our kids some free toy Toyotas as a bonus, at my request.

My local dealer was so helpful and eager to make things right that I didn’t hesitate to return when I needed another commuting car. I figured a faulty transmission on a new car was a fluke.

But now my Corolla is subject to the massive recall that has thrown your company into a public-relations nightmare. The fear-mongering press coverage hasn’t scared me into parking my recalled Corolla, as the transportation secretary so unhelpfully advised last month. And like you, I’m a bit suspicious of last week’s runaway car story. It reminds me of last year’s “Balloon Boy” hoax.

Still, my personal experiences with your cars do make me wonder exactly how trustworthy Toyota is these days. As tempting as a 0 percent interest is, I’m not about to buy a new car from you now. Besides, I still owe you a hefty sum for the broken one you sold me a year-and-a-half ago.

If you really want to buy my continued loyalty, forgive some of my debt for the car I have. Then I’ll come see you in a few years after you’ve figured out exactly where you went wrong with so many of your models now on the market.