The least reliable car I have ever owned was my '96 Jetta. One of the best is my '09 VW Rabbit S (Golf). Over the last 20 years, we have owned 4 VWs, 2 Hondas, 2 Toyotas, a Nissan, a Mazda and a Jeep (we have several drivers in the family). I don't know how they will hold up to high miles, but the '09 now has over 105K miles on it, and still has the original front brakes and clutch. In fact, the only money we have spent on it beyond preventive maintenance was to replace the A/C compressor and the headliner (both known problems with the '06-'09 Golfs). My '06 Scion xB (Toyota) has not been driven as hard, has 130K miles on it and is due for its 2nd clutch and 3rd set of front brakes. It also ate a set of front wheel bearings, and has had two windshields fail (large and thin, cracks easily). And the rear trim below the Scion's bumper was amputated by a chunk of ice that fell off another car during its first winter in snow country. So overall repair costs have been comparable between the Toyota and the VW, as were their purchase prices. My '15 Golf TDI has been a good, solid car. It has had no more early problems than my '00 and '02 Hondas did. Our '13 Jetta has been about as good. It's too soon to tell how those two will hold up, though. The only cars we have kept over 120K miles so far have been the Hondas and the Scion. The '11 Nissan was nothing to write home about, a bit more troublesome than the Hondas, Toyotas or recent VWs.
I guess what I am trying to say is that most non high-performance modern cars are pretty reliable, and they don't tend to require major repairs in the first 100K miles of ownership. That includes Golf-platform VWs made since at least 2006. There don't seem to be many known common, expensive problems with the last three generations of Golfs. Nothing like the Ford small-car automatic transmissions, for example (or the ones in '99-'06 Honda Odysseys, for that matter). I have my suspicions (born in the 1990s) that they may nickle and dime you more than Honda/Toyota/Mazda/Subarus when they get old, but no personal experience to base that on aside from my '96 VW lemon.
Preventive maintenance on the VWs is more expensive than it is on the other cars. Perhaps $100/year more than my Scion. They take special oil, so oil changes are more expensive but less frequent. And you really should take it to a shop thatknows VWs, as they are quite different to work on compared to American and Asian cars. At least you won't be bitten by the cost of maintaining a DSG transmission, because the Sportwagen comes with either a conventional automatic (Japanese, as I recall) or a 5-speed manual.
When I look at the first 105K miles on my '02 Honda Accord, '06 Scion/Toyota xB, and '09 VW Rabbit/Golf, the VW's overall cost of maintenance and repairs falls in the middle. I had feared it would be much worse when I bought it, but it has been a pleasant surprise. That left me feeling good enough about Golf-based cars to purchase the '15 VW for myself and the '13 for my daughter. I would have considered that to be way too much risk 10 years ago, but VWs seem to have improved quite a bit over the last 15 years.