CR doesn't need me to defend it's sruvey/ratings procedures, but considering they get something like 2.5 million responses, it makes sense that they have to limit possible problem categories to a finite number of choices... thus 'electrical' and not more specific.
Looking at the CR complaints re: late-model VWs, the problems reported seem to mirror the general complaints folks have mentioned here: electrical and hardware predominate. Even those of us lucky enough to have trouble-free TDIs (thus far... knock on wood) can agree that VW still has a way to go before they give Honda, Lexus, etc... a run for their money in terms of reliability. BTW, tho' the Golf GLS TDI '00 tested actually placed at the very top of the list (small car) scoring even higher than the Honda Civic EX they tested, the Honda actually took the 'best small car' title in the text ahead of the charts. This seems to be due soley to the Hondas higher reliability/predictied reliability ratings.
blue909