You were wise when you “swore I’d never own another VW/Audi product.” Take your own advice.
Long term reliability = constantly performing the recommended maintenance as listed in the owner’s manual.
Neither one of these cars had “long term reliability” when they were NEW. Reliability does NOT improve with age…
The problem with either of those cars is that the people who own them tend to drive them very hard…That alone will drastically reduce the long term reliability no matter how well they’re made or maintained.