Yeah, those horror stories worry me - I don't use my van (camper) for any journey under 30 miles/1 hour, but not sure if that'll be enough to ward off dreaded DPF issues.
Once you've got your PDC issues resolved, have you got any plans for performance upgrades? A lot of TSI owners seem to go down that route, but given you didn't start off looking for a TSI, that might not be for you.