That was from a good friend who has been a VW mechanic for 40+ years; now that VW's hand is caught in the cookie jar, I doubt they would be completely honest to explain their reasoning... I worked in the parts department of a VW dealership for 5 years; intake and EGR coking was a frequent problem for those who thought 3.5K rpm was redline. And it was fairly labor intensive, instead of just being able to install new parts and go.

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1998 VW Cabrio
2001 Audi SomeRoad A/T (no air suspension)
2003 Audi DeadRoad M/T (no vroom, for later)
2002 Audi NoRoad A/T (nothing under the hood, being rebuilt)