I bought my mk3 sept. 1st, 2009... sept. 12th I take her in for oil change at my buddies jiffy lube. Got two guys I know, trust and have befriended on a personal level that work there. Both agreed I got a steal of a deal and the car was in great shape. Only thing one of them found wrong (since he was under the car) was worn tires towards the inside of the car and told me my alignment was off and the tires were ready to blow. After that, took my car to get two new tires (luckily the brand of z rated tires on my car already were in stock). After having the fronts replaced with the perfectly good rear tires and having the new tires put on the rear, I go over to get my alignment and brakes done (since they were making metal on metal scrapping squeeks whenever I apply them).
The mechanics told me what great condition the car was in until I told them I had just acquired it... all of a sudden they thought I was a schmuck who didn't know the first thing about cars... telling me good parts needed to be replaced... thus charging labor rates on job(s) that never were done cause they didn't need to be done. They even mentioned I needed a new serp. belt when that was addressed no more than 4 months prior to purchasing the car. I left w/ no repairs done..
Sept 16, 2009, car dies making a right turn on the way into work and was towed home and sat till I could afford to give her attention on October 9th, 2009.. Took her into the shop on the 10th for diagnostics rather than waste $300 and a weekend fixing something I thought was 'probably' the problem... glad I did too cause the fuel pump was not the problem... had a busted distributor shaft near the gear and my engine wasn't getting the spark it needed. Or so I was told this morning. Several hours later, still no call saying it's fixed... so I'm hoping they're still waiting on the distributor cause the alternative is: "Well, we fixed it, but still have a problem." at which point I cannot afford to do anything more...
I've gotten to drive her for two weeks, and it was a fun two weeks... I've been waiting a year and a half to find (what I thought to be) a reliable mk3 and now that I have her, I get to wait even longer to drive her..
Sorry to hear about your wreck... I had a close call the first week of having mine when a lady making a left turn from an adjacent shopping center cut across all lanes of oncoming traffic, while looking right instead of at oncoming traffic..