"It might be back to the VW's for me."
Yikes. VW has fallen on hard times in terms of quality.
Go for a nice Honda.
I think I'd go for a Suburu instead. Haven't followed the car industry for years since I've bought Nissan's specifically, but I owned a Suburu (bought it used...less than 10,000 miles) several years ago and had nothing but good luck with it. How are they faring now? I know they're expensive, but...
Is that also true of their TDI Passat?
Mercury beat Honda in JD Power's dependability survey....
But you make a very good point. Go for a brand that actually can do things better than average. Those are Lexus, Porsche, Lincoln, Buick, Cadillac, Infiniti, Toyota, Mercury, Honda, Acura, BMW, Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler (in that order, according to JD Power)