I ran Penzoil in all of the cars I ever owned except for my two VW's. Those I ran Valvoline because that is the oil used by the dealer. Probalby will run penzoil in this car as well.

using Toyota OEM filters is the thing to do no matter which oil you use - they have some type of internal seal in the filter that keeps some of the oil in the top of the engine for better lubrication when starting engine.

I changed my own oil at the 10k mark.

Used the toyota filter (bought a 10 pack from sparks) and used Mobil 1 0w-20 (Wal-Mart carries it.)

I thought lifting the car was a pain because I wanted to drive it up some ramps but the fender hangs way too low so I had to use a floor jack instead.

Unscrewing the filter was a little tough too because all my filter wrenches are sized for big truck oil filters, so I had to use some finesse to get the oil filter unscrewed.

Really, it's pretty easy though.  I can't imagine why anyone would pay someone to do this, especially since you know a dealer is going to use the wrong oil (they all do) and a Jiffy lube is going to use both the wrong oil and the wrong filter.

QUESTION:  I just got to 4500 miles on BLACK BETTY, and i noticed that there is an indicator light that says MAINT REQUIRED flashing for about 1 min when I start her up...  Is my BETTY just telling me to change my oil, or should i be worried?

look in the owners manual - you can reset it if you want to