Let me guess, 2.5L motor and 5 spd tranny. They gear that thing extra low. You can shift to high gear at 35 mph, so then on a 70 mph speed limit highway you are screaming the rpm's and getting terrible gas mileage. Bad VW design there. All I tell everyone is never get anything with that engine. I didn't know any better at the time and got a '05 VW with the 2.5 instead of the 1.8 turbo because I thought a turbo would get worse mileage. My '02 Ford Escape V6 four wheel drive got two mpg better than that VW. I don't know what they were thinking. I don't know what to tell you about the steering. See if a different mechanic has an opinion.