I'm taking the buyback on my 2012 Passat TDI and breaking even after putting 50k miles on it in a year and a half. It has not had a single hiccup through those miles and I love the car, but I just crossed over 120k miles in it and now the turbo/hpfp/adblue heater/everything problematic is out of the 120k mile extended warranty issued by VW. I'm really not too worried about any of them in particular but the potential for a $$$ repair is there and it's about due for a timing belt and some shocks; so I decided it's best to take the money and run. I'll definitely miss averaging 48-50 mpg and 800 mile tanks.
I started looking into Honda/Toyota for gas mileage and cheap maintenance but the headroom (6' 7" over here) just wasn't there in anything. I ventured out into Mazdas and a few others but I honestly just couldn't find anything comfortable enough for the amount I drive. I slowly started looking back into gas VW's and it quickly evolved into this:
It's a 2013 GTI Wolfsburg with no mods other than APR software. It's tons of fun to drive and still somewhat decent on gas. Crossing my fingers that this is as trouble free as my TDI.
Awesome car, I test drove one of those a few years back when I was looking for new cars and was impressed! They are a lot of fun. My parents have the Inline 5 Golf and that thing is one reliable tank.
I've heard a lot of good things about these cars. Congrats and enjoy. The APR tune really wakes up those turbo motors. My cousin has a APR tune on his Jetta GLI and it scoots pretty well.
My buddy's used car lot sells a ton of these and whenever I drive one, I wonder why anyone would buy anything else. I especially love the steering wheel in those.