having owned hondas in the past, this is the first euro for me, but my brother had a b5 rs4, which btw suffered a lot of maintenance issues, which were expensive.
so far, in the 12k+ km of driving and less than 1 yr of ownership, i can happily report that i have had no dramas at all with reliability. i had the water pump whistle which was fixed under warranty, although i had to take it back 2 times asthe first time they changed another part that didnt fix the problem.
since then, no issue whatsoever to report, and im getting sub 8l/100km in fuel usage for a car thats pretty quick and an awesome drive.
as mentioned, vw is the best value brand out there, cheaper than an audi, but quality is as good, kinda