 All true below, but this car was so poorly made -- five times at dealer in year and a half to correct squeaking, creaking, cracking noises from panoramic sunroof. Could never get it resolved, and despite it being a fun car to drive, overall feeling of driving a worthless piece of junk. Had to sell, and also thanks to VW, residual value dropped like a stone. Lost all my equity from previous trade-in so had almost no value now compared to loan payoff. VW in the US sucks. Maybe they're built better in Europe but this is my second VW made on this side of the ocean and it was again a rattling piece of junk made with poor quality control. =========================This is my third VW and I love the idea of the brand, i.e., an affordable, well-made, fun-to-drive regular European car available in the US. This segment simply doesn't exist here -- we get Japanese efficiency boxes, highly reliable but dull; or expensive European luxury like Audi, BMW and Mercedes. Europeans have access to ordinary cars that perform well, carry 4-5 people, are well made, economical, and not "luxury" (VW, Peugeot, Seat etc). VW owns that entire segment in the US, so why they screw up so often with scandals and shoddy workmanship are beyond me. That said, despite the outrageous TDI error, I tried VW again after being happy with a Civic for 8 years (great car, not too fun to drive). I wanted economy this time as well, plus good seating for 4, plus more fun. New Golf seemed the trick, especially with the new turbo 4 replacing the ridiculous 5-cylinder knockbox. The Golf is built on the MQB platform, same as Audi A3 and other VW/Audi compacts. So with the turbo 4, it feels like an A3, which is fantastic. It is a traditional compact car so it feels a little old-fashioned inside, especially if you're used to the open, sweeping feel of a Civic interior. You can see VW tried very hard with lots of quality interior components -- soft-touch dashboard, leather steering wheel and shift knob, carpeted storage area in door -- yet still they messed up. The "panoramic sunroof" squeaked and rattled relentlessly for a year; had to bring it to dealer 3-4 times; once they replaced the entire glass panel (I was told the glass had been poured incorrectly) and the last time VW finally sent out a service bulletin and had a fix, a sealing tape the dealer installed that should muffle the squeaks. Still, it came back, and now I used some rubber deal lubricant I read about on a VW forum. In any case, VW really seems to shoot itself in the foot -- offering a great car at a good price, but with quality control issues that make it really unpleasant and seem like a cheap piece of junk. Given the annoyance after only one year, I'm watching with hesitation to see what breaks next. I wish I could like and trust VW, and it seems insane that owning an entire segment in the US, they would make so many mistakes. Consumer Reports is not happy with Golf's long-term reliability, so while the car is fun to drive and has many exceptional characteristics, I don't have the feeling of confidence and security in the purchase. Time will tell. I'll hope to update the review in a year or so with good news.