Well honestly, if I were you, after having suffered from long periods of downtime with a car and wanted to get a new car that won't give me any troubles for many many years, I don't think I'd look at a VW for now... maybe in 2-3 years, their reliability will creep back up, but for now, they're not a safe choice.
In your situation, I'd buy a new Civic and enjoy many troule-free years of driving. I wouldn't want to get into car troubles with 2 consecutive cars, and any VW isn't a safe bet for not having troubles right now.