Looking for other's experience....

Last night my car fell flat on it's face and I felt like an idiot leaving a light as the car stuttered and bucked thru the intersection. I took it easy the next mile home thinking I had a boost leak. All hoses are new and clamped down so no issue there.

Turns out that I was having a misfire in cylinder 1 but no blinking CEL yet. I took her for a short run around the block and sure enough there was that lovely amber light blinking. I cleared the code (P0301) this morning and swapped coil packs 1 and 2. Took her for a HARD run and nothing...car ran great! I am about to order a new set of coil packs and plugs just to have on hand. This has never happened before (and I am expecting it to happen to cyclinder 2 soon). I did not test the ICM because obviously the packs are getting voltage. Maybe something was just loose and needed to be reset, I doubt it tho.

I know the VAG cars are plauged with this problem. Do these things go out gradualy or do they just go? I do have the Hatachi packs in there now, I heard that these were less prone to failure but still fail. For others that experienced this issue did your packs die gradually or just go?