A better bit of advice is if you don't know what you are doing with cars don't ask a forum take it to a good mechanic. Sorry to hear your VW experience wasn't a good one.
Mate I asked on the forum got some good feedback and then did take it to a mechanic, but things just didn;t work out and the problems didn't get fixed after alot of money was spent on various bits and bobs.
I don't know how to do stuff myself so deffo needed to take it to a mechanic everytime I needed assistance.
I only used the forum for pointers and reccomendations on good places to use to get the car looked at.
Maybe another good point is don;t let yourself look like a total noob as the barrel maybe waiting for you to be bent over it and shafted