Before purchasing my 2008 GTI, I had 11 Japanese cars. I would have been first in line to smash VW's and german cars because of the expensive repairs and poor reliability. I had friends with VW's and audis that had very bizarre electronics issues and coil packs blowing (one example: s4 sunroof would open randomly). However, I was always intrigued by German handling, the refined interior, the torque, and the ability to easily tune the turbo motors and have cheap, quick horsepower. So I bit the bullet. I had my 2008 gti with no issues, and now I have a 2012 gti because i like it so much. I don't think I'll go back to a Japanese car. As for reliability, I haven't had any issues at all, even with my stage 2 mk5, and now my k04 mk6. In the last two years, VW has made a lot of changes in the U.S market and they are going hard at our market, as there's a lot of opportunity for them to grow. The U.S VW president has said a number of times that a top priority is reliability. There's also a "cool" euro factor verse driving a civic that just blends in. A VW says something, where the honda doesn't really say anything