In my experience with working on many German made cars (including one i have now owned for 10 years) i would tend to have to agree to that. Like i said in a previous post in this thread they engineer and make great cars that drive well and handle well and have great fuel economy. But...... they are painful to work on and OEM parts cost a fortune. Some things are not well thought out and it can be very hard to carry out basic service tasks due to what could be put down to nothing else than poor design, or as you said plain old arrogance.
Example, my mates Volkswagen LWB 4x4 Van. 2.5 liter turbo diesel. He needed an oil change done and i said i would do it for him. I bought the filter and oil. Drained the oil and then went to remove the oil filter. No room to get a socket onto the nut on the filter cover. Socket on the handle only or with any of my 6 different length extensions. Plus the filter cover is at an angle to the block and not square on. Plus there are small diameter pipes in the road to allow me to get any leverage on the socket handle. Read up on the internet what to do. Needed to remove entire front bumper and then loosen radiator mounts to pivot radiator away and move several brackets holding piping and cables just to allow me to get the socket on to the oil filter cover. Entire oil change from start to finish took 3 hours! Asked a mate of mine who is a retired Volkswagen mechanic and he said that was pretty good time for that job without a hoist.
He needs to get the clutch done now as it is slipping badly and he cannot drive it and it is his work vehicle. I said don't ask me! His best priced quote including labour and parts is now running close to $5500. No mechanics want to touch it because it is so complex and such a PITA to work on.