Dont buy one. I did. Its sat broken down 75% or more since i did. Cam shaft went. Turbo went. Engine harness went. Driver door went. Common egr leak. POS. I cant stress it enough. Owned a mk4 jetta vr6. POS. Bought this...and well i wont buy another VW ever again.
I feel you. I guess it is a matter of how much s**t can go wrong with the car before the owner loses his cool. If you have skills and tools, you can try to fix the problems yourself, but even that adds up, as things are often breaking down on this model, or at least that has been my experience with my car.
I have a steady 8-4 job, and I also work on Saturdays, I love fixing my car but I'm getting tired of spending countless hours fixing it. If I would not had taken the time to fix it myself, the car would have been sold a loooong time ago, as I cannot imagine the amount of $$$$ needed to pay a shop for the repairs.
Even my girlfriend, which has tons of patience, has begun to question the reliability of MK5 TDI; instead of watching a movie or relaxing on the couch together, the issues with the car are keeping us frequently separated.
My hope is that I have fixed/replaced by now everything that could go wrong with it, but it always manages to surprise me with new issues. I'm currently at 250K miles.
A friend of mine had a 2010 TDI CUP, very nice looking car. He also fixed his car himself, but got tired of fixing it, gave up and took the buyback, bought a used Prius. He has a barn with a hydraulic car lift, I often use it to fix my car, while he makes fun of me all the time, asking me when will I give up and buy something more reliable. Stubborn me would not give up....yet.
Another friend, totally clueless when it comes about skills, owns a 2006 Passat 2.0T gas. Also many problems at around only 100k, I have fixed his car here and there, many electric nightmares, corroded wires, to the point that he could not open the car at all (they also suffer of driver's door harness chaffing). Last week his car died in the middle of an intersection, we had to push the car. I have diagnosed the problem to be the electronic module located on top of the fuel pump under the rear seat bench. He just paid a month ago the dealer $2,200 to have the transmission valve body replaced (by the way, it's acting up again, less than 1k miles). Dealer wants $750 to replace his driver's door harness (which is a manufacturer design defect), and $1000 for the suspension, as it is shot. After that he will sell the car for whatever he can obtain and lease a Chevy Trax for $160/month, in his case, still cheaper on the long term than keeping his current Passat.