4 years later and it's back to VW... The buyback was too much to resist. $400 more than I paid for the car new, plus the gift cards and whatever Bosch is going to pay out. I need a garage and this will pay for part of it. I had planned on either selling my Jetta or going all out with the mods, but it's back in daily commuting now. 220k and running strong!
I pulled all the accessories off the Passat and will list them for sale soon. I left the rear fog, tdiheater, lowering springs and the front fog harness in place because they were too much work for what I could sell them for. I saved both sets of tires and put my old Jetta wheels / bald tires on before turning it in.
This is how it looked which is pretty sad:
I'll miss it, but I won't miss the clunking, creaking and the sound of sand in the window scrapers like fingernails on a chalkboard...