blown head gasket

well I blew a head gasket and there's coolant in cylinder 3 and dealership wants to put a new engine in. My mechanic friend thinks maybe just a new head gasket could work. The car was not driven very far after it failed... Why is my 2002 jetta with only 90k miles having this failure. Anybody have this happen or know how screwed I am? Really looking at a *new* engine?

I don't see why a new engine is needed for a headgasket blowing. You should be able to just replace the gasket unless there's cracking on the head or another malfunction going along with the headgasket. I'm with the mechanic friend.

You will have to have the head checked for warpage/cracking, with a possibility of milling. When you say "not driven very far" how far does that mean? Our family's Quantum TD overheated and was driven a couple hundred yards to safety before if was shut off. Too late for that one. Needed the head decked, but ran great after that.