My dad and I actually penciled out how much money we've spent on GM cars alone. $160,000. Wonder why we don't have any of them still? Garbage quality! You keep on thinking that maybe the new model will be better, only to be proven wrong. We like to buy American cars, so it was mainly GM cars. The last car we tried was the 2007 Saturn Aura XR. It had won Motor Trend's Car of The Year award, so it should've been good. Holy crap were we wrong. The was the first car we went through with the lemon law. We switched to Ford for American cars, and so far it has been 33k problem free miles. GM was a lot of good money wasted!
Just about every car company has or had engine oil sludge problems. Even Toyota deals with sludge to this day!
I've turned into a VW enthusiast over the many years, and I've read into engine problems, but they aren't as HUGE of a problem as people make them out to be. It was also noted that sludge would be created when people abused their cars, and didn't follow maintenance procedures, pushed oil life to their limit, while using wrong gas, or switching to different types of oil that weren't 502-00, 503-00 and etc, certified by VW. That's what you get for buying a car that is made in Germany, and doesn't follow US standards. It's not the car's fault the user is dumb.
It's also not really hard to figure out how ending sludge is developed. You just look at the sludge, notice what's it's made up of, and determine other internal problems. Most were caused by user missies. Sorry to say that, but Americans are dumb when it comes to cars. They expect them cars to fix themselves. Go to Europe and you will see how long a car is truly capable living(VW). There, people actually know a thing or two about maintaining their car...not because they they necessarily like to, but because their cars are as "disposable" as the cars of average US/North American drivers.
As for complexity, look at your Mac.
As for engine, there is no true standard of how the engine should lay, just used best to acquire best driving dynamics. Longitudinal mounted engine give better performance, better weight distribution, and better fuel efficiency, on a car that is mated to a car that is available in both fwd and awd variants. AWD cars perform better with a longitudinally mounted engine that has a drive shaft going straight to the back. This equals less angles, which can lead to power and efficiency loss. This is a problem with horizontally mounted awd engines. FWD is not so much of a problem wither way. In Longitudnal mounts, the engine also sits over the front axle, as apposed to sitting in front of the axle on a horizontal mount.
There are cars that are cheap, and don't require maintenance. There are cars that people shouldn't buy because they won't be able to maintain it. There are cars that people buy for the wrong reason. The there are those people buy something without knowing what they are getting into. That's VW. It's a German car, it's not going to be perfect, like appliances from Toyota, but is so much more car than it will ever be.
I'd like to point out that, as I'm sure you probably know, you can create an endless list of car problems from just about every car manufacturer in the planet. Lexus, the worlds most reliable car maker, can have a list of problem equaling a novel, if I ever felt like it was important to note.
As I've learned, car reliability, and being problem free does not equate to a car being better. I would trade all the cars I have right now to have my '07 passat in brand new condition.
Just my part of this...discussion
The only car from GM will EVER think over owning again is a Suburban. That's it.
