Stl-986, you are right - with door handle assemblies at $30 to $40 on eBay, buying a used handle assembly is the way to go. I only dug into this on Saturday and was able to order the VW part Saturday afternoon for $6 from Amazon and have it delivered Sunday. It showed up at 2PM and I was able to rebuild the lock assembly and get it back in the car. So now the car locks once again. Funny thing is, my son knew the car couldn't be locked but it didn't stop him from taking it to High School or using it around town.
BTW, the VW part has an extra tab sticking off the front, but it still works. Here is the new VW part on the left and the original broken part on the right.
