Originally Posted by Bah Humbug

I only had the one a 2007.5 MK5 GTI. So that... yeah. In addition to the three major failures over 3.5 years of ownership, there was a rattle that bugged the crap out of me. It didn't happen all the time, but sometimes when closing the driver's side door, there would be a very annoying metallic rattle. One day (when having a bad day with the ex) I decided to go figure it out. Alone in the car, the rattle would happen every time I closed the driver's side door. It was coming from the passenger's side, but when sitting on that side to be closer and closing that door, no noise. Eventually I sat in the driver's seat, leaned over, and close the door. The rattle was right under me.

After a little more experimentation, I discovered that the passenger seatbelt receptacle had a slightly loose part, and when the seat was empty the receptacle would bounce just enough from a closing door to rattle, but if someone was sitting there the motion would be attenuated enough to be silent. A tiny sliver of paper towel shoved in stopped the rattle forever.

I do understand why people like VWs; I'd be fine with another GTI (from a driving perspective) anywhere I wanted a low-ground-clearance toy, but the chance of failure is just too high for anything I'd count on daily.