Seems to be fine now. Just did 350 km with a couple of short stops and the "feel" is as good as it was when I bought it.... IOW pretty decent. Noticed a bit more punch when I hit the giddyup pedal which may have slowly deteriorated prior to the problem slowly enough that I didn't clue in.

Perhaps one of the techs on the board can shed some light on why the starter would not disengage even when the key was turned off and pulled out. The CT mechanic speculated that perhaps the ECU was not getting a signal that it was firing and would not disengage the starter until it received a firing signal.

As part of his troubleshooting, he poured a small amount of gas into the air intake and cranked it... once it caught a spark the starter disengaged.

His somewhat sheepish comment was that he moved away from Toronto to get away from cars like that.

I'll keep an eye on it for a bit anyway and have it looked over later this week by my usual tech for any electrical heebee-jeebees.