I can vouch for the 6 month life expectancy of non-VW wires!  Almost 6 months
to the day after installing cheap wires, my wife arrived home like Cleopatra
with our 86 Syncro Westie on the back of a flatbed!!!!These wires are very
uncomfortable where I am sitting now.  I didn't want to pay the $100 either.
 My wife was very surprised when the flatbed driver said he had "never seen
one of these before."  Cleo now requests only OEM.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Kris