It’s literally that most VWs get pretty mediocre reliability and maintenance scores at least in the US. There are certainly very reliable VW models of certain years, and people certainly get good examples of a model that will just go be forever but also… there are a LOT of duds. At the end of the day it just comes down to the fact that German car makers (as well as American of course) can’t really hold a candle to a basic Honda civic or Toyota camry commuter car. They go forever, there are VERY few models and model years that need to be avoided, and they just don’t break down even if you don’t baby them like a car enthusiast would.

In the US there is a subset of people who get obsessed with German stuff just being nicer than stuff from other places, those people tend to be really really insufferable people and from my American perspective it has always annoyed me that Japanese cars just annihilate German cars in how well engineered they are to just work for years with no bullshit and yet there is still a very strong cultural association with German = well engineered in the US that I think is utterly unwarranted. This mindset is also reflected in how much repairs cost to do, German cars are seen as nicer so of course mechanics will charge more. It is cheap as shit to get a mechanic to repair your beater Camry.

I drove a Honda Fit (Jazz in Europe I believe?) for most of my life, there wasn’t any space in that thing to work on either and I have met tons of Fit owners who love the shit out of their car in the US. I easily could have gone for a VW hatchback but honestly the Honda Fit just utterly destroyed the VW options along every practical metric including maintenance, reliability and usable interior space. Was my Fit as fun to drive as a nice VW hot hatchback? Heck no but at the same time the steering was precise and lively.

Look I am not saying Americans aren’t loud assholes who make stupid decisions, I agree with you there I hate my country lol. I think there may be real differences between maintenance and parts cost and maybe even quality control for US sold VWs versus ones sold in Europe so maybe we aren’t talking about quite the same thing really?