ive had one and working as a mechanic i can say in general they are cracking cars..i would have another in a heartbeat, i currently have a mk4 so maybe im gonna say they are great. but we never had any probs with ours, i done the usual i do to all our cars when i take ownership, cam belt filters etc and it never let us down.
i had the 8v

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/k...4/100_0167.jpg


the only thing that i can think of is that the idle can fluctuate sometimes and its usually down to some idiot cleaning out the throttle body or idle control valve but its usually resolved by re calibrating the stepper motor..
but you will need a scanner...mt2500 or something a like..