Same thing happened to me. I drove my Dad's BMW long enough to get the blau und weiss in my blood...but I went through a bunch of Euro & Japanese cars in the meantime, including a nice old VW Golf and a Jetta III. Neither ever left me stranded, though a lot of little stuff broke on the Golf. VW QC has tremendously improved since the 80's...the Jetta III was a vast improvement. Sold it to a friend's son and I'll bet it's still running!