I don't understand. Wife's Camry did 236k and clutch was not giving grief, would still have it had I not wrecked it. My Jetta had a DMF failure at 249k and my mechanic showed me the disc and flywheel, and both of us would have reused them without second thought, the wear was so minimal. $700 job but that was 10 years ago, so maybe that's a grand now (was looking at Volvo wagons the other day, a V70 needing a clutch came up, and that was a couple grand best I could tell--so it could always be worse).
VR6's had timing chain problems I thought? Passat's with the TDI, I think they had balance shaft problems (again a chain). Early 2.5's had problems (tensioner?).
I like to know what I'm getting into--when I bought my Jetta I knew I would have to do a clutch if I upgraded the power, struts at some point, and probably something else (luck of the draw). It did not surprise as such when it did need those "expected" repairs, although I had not expected to have a flywheel fail of all things.