Let's start with something not so obvious to everyone... The VW TDI is an expensive and complicated vehicle selling for what might be considered a bargain price. This isn't to imply cheap, just to say that there's a whole lot more wrapped up in these vehicles than meets the eye of the average consumer.
Once an owner of one of these vehicles there come maintenance choices. Some of us choose the dealer. Others a local "expert". (There is no such thing as an expert!) A few of us choose to twist our own wrenches. And, of course, there are those who choose to reset the warnings and continue blindly onward confident that good luck will prevail, or just totally ignore the obvious.
Those who choose a dealer must be prepared to have deep pockets and the patience of Job. Of dealers I'll say nothing more as there are both good and bad.
Local shops and "experts"? Some have good reputations. Others don't. My younger son learned the hard way about those who don't.
Those who ignore? What can I say? Somehow it doesn't make any sense that in owning a vehicle which has vastly more computer power than the moon lander one would choose to ignore or erase warnings.
And those of us who choose to do our own service? Generally we take pride in the maintenance level of our vehicles. We don't expect warning lights. And when they sometimes appear we tend to diagnose and repair the cause. We always seem to need to know the reason.
Which brings me to a couple of points... To properly diagnose and repair a diesel powered computer disguised as a car it's necessary to communicate. The better the communication the better chance of discovery and a painless repair. That's why VagCom is necessary for some of us. The less we have to use VagCom the more we appreciate it's price. This makes perfect sense to a few of us. To others it's a mystery.
My other point is that a good number of owners consider our VW's an exceptionally long-lived vehicle. I'll be the first to admit that both my A4 and now my A5 exhibit some unexpectedly high quality components, I sincerely doubt though that this is the reason we expect our vehicles to live a long life. I'm more inclined to think that the combination of a sometimes annoyingly controlling computer combined with somewhat compulsively fanatic owners is more the reason.
I climb into a six year old vehicle that has 150k miles on the clock as I write. It still looks and feels almost new. And while I realize that a warning light could come on, I don't expect it to. Further, I fully expect that if I needed to drive to the far corners of this nation today I could expect a trouble free trip. The reason being that I know the vehicle. I know what's been done to it and I know it's regular needs. Obviously this doesn't preclude the unexpected, but the unexpected happens on any vehicle. Even brand new ones.
So... Go cheap and band-aide a potential problem because you'll never be able to actually determine the root cause or go somewhat more expensive and be able to equal or surpass the ability of a dealership? For me there's not much to decide. I have a feeling I'm in good company here.
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