[Spinnaker]

I disassembled my last broken switch to see what was going on inside of it, out of curiosity. The problem. as I see it, is that it is made out of plastic, and there is a lot of tension on it from the spring inside. The thin plastic parts fatigue from the constant use, and fail. Plastic doesn't like to be under constant stress. It is OK for decorative items, but anything that gets stressed constantly will eventually fail. The thinner the cross section, the sooner it will fail.
Updating to the newer ignition switch assembly doesn't seem to help. There have been posts about them failing also.
I have resigned myself to treating the ignition switch as a maintenance and wear item, like tires, brakes, clutches, etc. It's not so bad to do once you have replaced it the first time and they are cheap enough if you get them from the online parts places. Just buy enough of them to last for awhile and to be sure you have one when you need it. I always have one in the car with the proper tools the do the job anytime, anyplace, anywhere it may happen again. I have no doubt that it will happen to me again. I am on my third switch.
Just curious if the VW and Audi guys have the same problem (same switch).

edit: Just did a search for Audi ignition switch problems and the Net is full of posts with the same problems we have. Guess we are all in the same boat.