Many thanks for your reply and financial explanations.
I fully understand what your saying about building your confidence in a car.
I reckoned my car was properly put together when it had been through two winters without fault, only then was I fully confident in the car and I went my April, May and June 4,500km road trip through 3 countries.
The car performed faultlessly from snow to +30C and now I would drive it anywhere, Southern Italy next or perhaps the coastal route of Andalusia.
My original plan was to keep my Golf for ten years, thats why I added leather seats to my list of options. Might keep it longer if its still running faultlessly, might change for DSG if I get to lazy or fuel keeps rising, or if I could get a transplant.
I have seen it written that car against car the Golf is the most expensive of all production cars to make, only the huge global sales make it profitable.
Perfection takes time and seamless engineering which perhaps that explains why the Golf is almost faultless.
Re; Polos, a Dutch friend drove a Polo from new and his clutch went at 240,000km, he found the cost of a replacement to be more than the cars worth. Yes he bought another Polo.