wow.
I feel for all of you, honestly. (especially TinSnips, the poor guy has had a well documented history of 'badluck' with his car)
But at risk of sounding like a Holden Fanboi, I havent had any drama's with my car (touch wood) and absolutely love it. It's easily the best car I've ever owned- and I've owned POS Merc's, Fords, Honda's, and VW's. In term's of reliability I also had a Daihatsu Charade... bloody bullet proof. Ok build quality of cabin internals (like carpet) sucked arse, but as a cheap hatchback she was awesome. Didnt miss a beat.
And same with my Sportwagon. No squeaks, no rattles, no otherwise unexplained mechanical issues. It performs as expected.
And that's the thing with a thread like this, a lot of people are going to come out with complaints (and fair enough- I would too if I had them), but outsiders reading this thread will think the VE is the worst car ever- and that's certainly not the case.
Every car, every make has problems.
But on the whole the VE is a damn fine car... and remember, you need to compare it with other car's in the same price point. No point in comparing to euro's or japs that are thousands of dollars more. Bang for buck, VE's are at the top of the list imo.
This isnt excusing the problems experienced above, but to anyone else reading just remember that there are 2 sides- and that there is a big reason the VE is still top of the charts in sales volumes.