They are without a doubt the most infuriating things to work on. I had a mid 90's diesel Passat for a few years. Mileage was unbelievable, but the annoying little electrical problems just drive you insane.
I've read that they use wire with a higher percentage of copper in it, so it work hardens and cracks sooner, which would explain the door wiring glitches they all seem to get because the wires crack in the hinge area.
For an example of german engineering, that Passat had power locks. A little electric lock solenoid like every other manufacture uses was apparently far too simple for vw.
It had a vacuum pump in the truck. Hit lock button, a whirring noise comes from the trunk and sucks the locks down. All well and good until it got to below zero when the lines would freeze and nothing worked. I drove to work holding the door closed more than once.
Also far too many allen bolts holding them together. Caliper bolts for example, what kind of monster would use one there?
You can imagine how well an allen bolt fares when it's torqued like that and then is down in the salt. I had to weld a bar to one of mine to get it out.
And that bull**** was with a generally reliable car. Cam probably has a few more stories about his audi...
I do wish other makers would adopt that feature of being able to roll the windows up or down with the key in the door tho. Awesome when you forget to roll them up, or the car is baking in the august sun and you can roll the windows down before getting in.
