I have a 2.0 TDI 2006 passat which is now 3 years 7 months old and has 80,200 mile on the clock.

Two days ago the I tried to start the car and a message came up 'Engine Fault', I took the key out and tried it again and it started ok. I was at work and it was after closing so my plan was to get home and get to a garage the next day.

I got about 20 miles and the car cut out so I had to be rescued. My local VW dealer took a look at the car and have said one fuel injector failed which has blown all the other injectors. They say it happens so rarely that they cannot explain what happened. Basically the repair bill is £2,500 - and it is my cost because it's out of warranty! VW will swallow 15% and the dealer will take 10% but that still leaves me with £1,886. I have called VW Customer Care and they are looking into my case.

Needless to say I have a few questions.

1) is it reasonable to expect fuel injectors to last the lifetime of the car?
2) has anyone had similar issues and if so did VW take care of it?
3) my understanding of consumer protection legislation in the UK is that regardless of manufacturer warranty the goods should be of merchantable quality therefore if it is reasonable to expect fuel injectors to last longer than 3.5 years they are substandard?
4) any ideas what could have caused the failure if not faulty parts? I am concerned that if I pay for the repair and something else casued it - what is to stop it happenning again?

sorry for the essay - there are lost of issues with this one!

any comments welcome.