I’m on my fifth VW and I’d say that build quality has certainly deteriorated over the years. My first VW back in 2002 was the best built by far - a mk4 Golf. It wasn’t the most dynamic car, but it felt premium compared to other manufacturers‘ offerings at the time. Of the five VW’s I’ve owned, I‘ve had panel gap issues with three of them and a paint defect with one. It does make you question how good VW’s QC process is at the end of the production line in the factory.
With my current car, I have uneven panel gaps between the bottom of the A pillar and the top of the wing when you compare the two sides of the car. Correcting those uneven gaps would create uneven panel gaps elsewhere, so I just live with it and don’t really notice it now. I did consider rejection, but VW stopped producing my model of car for the UK market so getting a replacement of the same model wouldn’t have been possible, plus there‘d have been the wait time too. Also, there wasn’t really anything else on the market I wanted at the time. I did wonder if my car had been damaged in transit from the factory (not uncommon) but I’ve taken paint depth readings all over the car and the paint coverage is uniform, so there’s no sign of paint / body repairs.
It‘ll probably be my last VW.
Creaks in a car’s interior trim can be very annoying, and tracking them down can be difficult. With your creaking door frames, it’s quite a common issue (I’ve had it on two of my VW’s); do a Google search on ‘VW creaking door seals’. I’d say the door seals have probably dried out - often caused by car washing products. Using a product such as Gummi pflege every so often to lubricate the seals is likely to cure the creaking. VW have their own product to lubricate seals called Krytox; it’s very expensive but the effects are meant to last longer than they do when using some of the cheaper alternatives.
