I don't get this. I had always heard of the horrible maintenance cost of VW. I now have owned a Jetta, though the 1.8t rather than TDI, and it is dirt cheap to maintain.

I just put 2 rotors on it last year, $14 each. My old Ford the wife drove, $90 each for rotors. I am use to Toyota trucks in which I had never put a single dime into any of them in 300,000 miles or so other than an $8 rebuild kit for a starter and a $4 seal kit for the clutch master cylinder. Thus, replacing rotors was new to me starting with the Ford POS. I've also replaced the front wheel bearing which I had a shop do for $125 (labor charges on that one) and two hub/bearings in the rear for $50 each.

Now on the other hand, my old Ford we bought brand new. Warranty ran out about 1.5 years after purchase (36k warranty) and it failed it's first state inspection with junk rotors. I put 4 sets of rotors on that thing in 6 years and 118k miles. First set of rotors at 36,000 miles I replaced and looked at the 159,000 mile Nissan sitting in the driveway next to it and figured I'd just replace the original rotors on it too since I had cut them down once from hot spots and the hot spots were coming back. Again, the 4 rotors cost me $90 each 4 times through it's 6 year 118k life. That's $1440 just for the rotors compared to $13 worth of maintenance with my previous 4 Toyotas at a combined 300,000 miles.

So far, the Jetta is at $279 for 2 rotors, 2 sets of pads, 1 front shop swapped wheel bearing and 2 rear hub/bearing assemblies in 4 years and 56k miles. Not too shabby considering I really use that turbo driving hard.