VWs are my favorite cars of all times, but although they are relatively cheap, do not buy one unless you can afford some extra maintenance
my brother owns a 2000 TDI, and he has problems with the diesel in the winter (this is probably not a problem in missouri like it is in North Dakota though)
another thing is that (up here at least) diesel is about 25 cents more per gallon than unleaded, so even though he gets better mileage, we come out even price/mile wise
I owned 2 VWs at one point and our family owns a Passat, A4, Jetta and GTi now...they are a boatload of maintenance but how can you not love them?
my biggest qualm with them is that I think the 3 yr, 36k warranty is pretty bunk, if they had a better warranty I would have bought another one, but for a 23 year old, I can't afford to only have 3 years coverage