steering column = car towed = confidence lost

Up until 3 days ago I was a proud owner of new passat ( well demo, 8K km, 2006 3.6 passat sedan). What happened 3 days ago made me completly regret my purchase to the point that I will post this car for sale.
History:

3 Weeks ago car was purchased at VW dealer in Montreal area. I even opted for recertification for additional $1000.00 for extra 2 years warranty on top of original 4 years.
For the first 2 weeks, it was absolute pleasure to drive this car even with small occasional hickups ( gas cap light would randomly turn on/off, window lock would randomly sometimes lock and sometimes not do anything when pressed, reading light would flicker when car is idle)
Then, at the end of week 2, steering column yellow light came on and stayed on throughout the weekend, at which point I've decided to take the car to the dealer.
At the dealer I got standard song and dance by the salesman, "it's probably battery since the car was parked on their lot for a year without being much driven".
That was on Monday, after 5 days at the dealer garage and not being able to solve the problem I've decided to take the car to another dealer.
During those 5 days dealer provided me with a courtesy car (Beetle). I was assured by the dealer that car (passat) was safe to drive and to make another appointment. As expected, after 20min steering light came on. I drove the car for another 50-100km during weekend.
What happened on following Monday made me rethink and regret my purchase. On my way to new dealer, after entering mayor intersection, that yellow warning light for steering column changed to red, beeped once or twice,car suddenly stopped, steering wheel locked, car turned off. At this point I was 5min away from hitting highway.
I just received a call from a dealer where my car is at, to inform that they "found" the problem and they "hope" by changing steering column and rack and pinion will fix the problem.
First question: how can you say "we found" and "we hope"?
Second question: what would have happened if I was driving 100km/h on a highway and a car locks like that?

Am I being "anal"? I think not. VW puts a lot of emphasis on passat security features so it's only normal to expect nothing short of perfection or at least that things like above do not happened.

I did call VW Canada and made official complaint which I doubt will result in anything positive. Person that I spoke to even said that "there was no injury so at this point we can only fix the car through the warranty"

Surely those were not the words I was expecting to hear from VW Canada.

Thank you

Srry to hear that I 'm real glad no one got hurt when that happened.

good luck in your future travels sorry to loose a VW Brother in that way.

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http://www.vortexautomotive.com

To bad to hear your story on the Passat steering. I am taking a 2001 Jetta Steering rack out this week. At least the 2001 Jetta rack and pinion is hydraulic. The new electric steering racks sound very unsafe. I heard of an electric steering rack in a New Mini overloading the wiring under the hood and causing 6000 dollars of damage do to the fire and wire harness damage. I was actually looking for a manual rack for the 2001 Jetta. VW has a real quality control problem. The steering rack I am changing would not need changing if the hard lines on the 2001 Jetta steering rack were stainless. I am changing the rack before it fails. The hard lines on the 2001 Jetta steering rack are to close to the exhaust so the combination of the heat and regular steel and road moisture when driving in the rain or snow have made the 2001 Jetta steering rack metal lines swelled up from corrosion and going to fail . So rather then wait for the lines to fail and leave my family members or myself attempting a turn when it would go out, it is coming out. I work on cars as a hobby to save money for my family. Many things fail on the VW's that should not for the time on the components. The VW 2.0 engine is especially bad for the water pump going bad very early 20 to 40 thousand miles and to change it is no fun, I have done it over and over and over. I think the VW parts are getting very bad. The VW electric window motors are junk. Many items on the cars from VW break because they are sub contracted out and the results are scrap is made and delivered to go into the newer VW cars. Daughters door lock quit at around 70000 miles. Other daughters New Beetles MAF sensor died along with the windows and a bad front wheel bearing at 80000 miles. The 2001 Jetta has had many visits to the shop needed the coil pack and I can not remember how many 02 oxygen sensors. These VW's form Mexico do not make 50000 miles before all kinds of parts have failed. Find out on your steering rack if the power steering rack is coming from Germany or Mexico, China or wherever. VW's have some parts from China now like the electric window motors can come from China, Mexico or Germany the manufactures name is Brose, junk in my opinion. The Germany VW engines are pretty bullet proof it is just the junk hanging on the engines, like timing belt train parts, ignition, and fuel system that VW needs to upgrade, along with all kinds of the electric convenience items. Order the cars minus all the electric luxury. Get manual windows I would even get manual steering if I could get it on the Jetta, Golf and Beetle. You loose all the savings on fuel mileage in gong to the dealer to fix all the junk hanging off the newer VW's.