VWs are decent, but that is one downside to German cars and some Japanese cars is that you have to buy specialty tools.
The American cars are getting worse about it too these days and I'm not even going to mention how expensive the scanners and software is to be able to work on newer American stuff and other stuff now.
They're trying to force you to go to the dealer just like John Deere is doing with tractors.
When my car is out of warranty, and I'm sure many many people have to deal with that these days due to a shitty economy, I don't want to have to take it to the dealership and get raped by their stupid prices.
I fix just about everything myself though and buy or borrow specialty tools when I need them.
That heated seat with built in massager costs the same $1000 whether the car is new and worth $100,000 or whether it is 10-15 years old and worth $10,000. At $100,000 it is 1% of the cars value and makes sense to replace, not to mention the fact that $1000 isn't as big of a hit to the bank account of someone who can afford a $100,000 car, versus when the car is worth $10,000 and the $1,000 seat is worth 10% of the cars value.
And many people know that if you keep up on preventative maintenance that the odds of stuff going wrong in the first place is decreased drastically.
Personally, I'd be happy with paying $1,000 to fix a part on a nice car that I've saved $89,000 on by buying used, hypothetically speaking anyways.