My friend has an 03 GTI, the transmission is a slop box, the throw is so long and it feels sooooo sloppy when going into gear.It also grinds badly when it goes into second gear at times. At 30,000 miles his air bag light came on and apparently his airbag was bad, and needed replaced. Also, he is sort of forgetful and locks his keys in the car. When he called AAA to get into his car, the car wouldn't unlock when the lock button was hit and it had before. And with the desing of the lock you can't manauly pull it up or slide it, so he had to call a locksmith. Point is VW's are kind of nice, but for the money and the problems they have, are deffiently not worth it. The only VW I like is the R32, they are very nice, but expensive.