Ignition problems of the 2008 Toyota Yaris

In April of 2010 I was driving down the highway when my depressed gas pedal went to the floorboard with no acceleration and the check engine light came on. I was able to merge into the emergency lane and after turning the ignition off and back on it resolved itself. This happened several more times over the following week in various locations at various speeds. I took the car to the Toyota dealership I had purchased it at just 2 years prior & was told that I needed an updated engine harness. Since my car was 2000 miles out of standard warranty & electrical issues are not covered by powertrain warranty this repair was to cost me $1200. A mechanic friend of mine went to the dealership & asked why this was not a recall since a 2-year old vehicle should not require such repairs & how he may go about obtaining the part to save some cost to me. He was told that there were not enough issues for this to be considered for recall & that the part could only be purchased through the manufacturer an &placed by the dealership. Since the money was not available, I chose to not have it replaced at that time. . In the 2 years since the problem was diagnosed I was only noticing this problem about once every 3-4 months. Then this week all of a sudden it began again & has been a consistent problem on a daily basis. Not only does this happen multiple times per day but it takes several attempts at shutting the engine off & restarting before it resolves & will repeat immediately after putting the car in gear. I have been stuck in intersections, pulling out of parking lots, & on the highway & do not understand why this is not considered a severe safety issue. After contacting the dealership once again I was told to bring it back in for another diagnostic for which they are going to charge $85. I feel this is ridiculous and only bought this car because of Toyota's reputation.