[RedDevil]

I remember that at the time VW did make a point of reducing cost on the parts supplier side, even invoking a take-it-or-leave-it 20% price reduction on all supplied parts at the same time. Some supplier firms refused that and were sidelined. Some folded. Many complied. You do not have to be a genius to figure out what that meant to the quality of their product.

VW makes the same mistake over and over again. One model year of the old Beetle had a novelty - a nylon part was introduced in the gearbox. But it turned out that gearbox oil was devastating to nylon - and repeated stresses did the rest, making the gearbox lock up completely on the motorway, swaying the stricken bugs round.
Sometimes they don't make mistakes and the cars are good though.