A better deal? The Prius III or the VW GTI/TDI. Case Study.

The VW TDI was a serious consideration for me until I found way too many complaints on their forum about stalling, high pressure fuel pump failures, expensive transmission fluid changes, timing belts instead of chains and bad warrantee support by dealers looking to blame owners instead of fixing problems.
Test driving showed some lag when you start out and an easy to stall manual (weird for a diesal - you have to rev it. If you lug it at all it shuts itself off). Drove nice once it got going.
YMMV