Individual anecdotes don't mean much. You can find objective data on car reliability on TrueDelta and Long-Term Quality Index. Those aren't true random samples but still pretty useful.
_My_ story is anecdotal but early 2000 VWs are known for being really shitty. this have this history. I heard they have gotten "better" but a bit too late for me to care about.
I had a 2001 Passat 1.8T (that I got used in 2003) had a slew of problem covered under the VW CPO warranty. Fortuitously enough, after that warranty expired, it ran like a clock for 8 years. (But I wasn't afraid to service it myself either.
http://www.truedelta.com/car-reliability
http://tradeinqualityindex.com/reports/Volkswagen.html