Well, disabling the DRLs is your own choice but VWs view on it is if you're a technician and you get caught doing it - you're history, no questions asked. If you decide to do that to your own car - have at it, it's your car. Yes, you can modify the switch wiring or use a Vag-Com to do it but if you drive your car up to the dealer and ask us to do it you'll always get the same answer: We don't do that. Same for the seatbelt chime and the "Accept" screen on the navigation system. Those two things are annoying for a reason and the DRLs are for additional safety.
The bulbs are still made in Germany (Phillips). No bamboo filaments here David.
Look at it this way - if the bulb was designed to operate for, say, 1000 hours that 1000 hours comes a lot quicker on a car with DRLs than it does on a car without DRLs. So, no, bulbs haven't gone to crap in the past 10 years they're just on a lot more than they were on earlier vehicles.
But back to the original question. I haven't noticed any bias on which bulb goes out more frequently. My experience has been that it seems to be a pretty even division from driver's to passenger's side.
