In response to Gregg's post:
Have taken bus to Randolph Motors in rockville, and have had generally good
service;  Winfried (factory trained owner of two man shop) is fair and
generally good mechanic.  I end up paying only about half the time, as he
does not charge to examine problems that do not require repair.   Caveat:
 there are lots of things that he will not do, beacause he cannot get labor
warrantied by VW, should the part fail.   To that end I just tried a new
shop,

Wheaton Service Center, and am very happy.  Labor at $25/hr, very good price
for dc area.  Yesterday they
installed helicoil in oil drain plug
tested and replaced oxs
set ignition timing
adjusted for emmissions test (passed with flying colors) for a $50 labor
charge.  Very reasonable IMHO.  One weird thing: Cash only.  No checks, no
credit cards. 301-949-3144.  HAve many cats on premises.  Little old apple
granny in the front office.

As for tires, I highly recommend Radial Tire co in Silver Spring.  $265
complete for a new set of Michelin 6 plys last month.

Peter & Zippy