Car update

Well my car hates me I think. No I will rephrase -- the universe hates me. SO I buy my VW Cabrio back in late january for the bargain price of $3500. I was pretty geeked about this and really happy with the car. Till it started to develop a rather pronounced shaking in the front end. I took it to one place and had a transmission flush and some other things. Well 200 bucks later and it now runs worse than before. SO then I take it to a transmission place and they say the trans is near death and must be replaced. SO $3700 later and the cars gears are no longer slipping but it still shakes. The trans place rotates the tires and most of it seems to go away. SO about two months later (yes im a slacker) I go to get my tires balanced. WOW guess what the front tires (which were new in jan) are toast b/c the front is massivly out of alignment. SO they do an alignment and rotate the bad tires in the front to the rear. this was about another 70 bucks. A week later it still is shaking like mad, now remember this is the same shake since before the trans, I take it back to have them check the rims to see if they are gone. First bit of good news is that the rims are fine but the mechanic assures me that the tires are the cause of the shaking and that if replaced that will fix the problem. He offers me 4 tires installed for $500. I say "uh no" I will get my own rubber. SOOOOOOOOOO I go to Tirerack.com and purchase 4 very nice yokohamas' for the bargain price of $250 shipped. Im feeling pretty happy about this b/c after installation I should still be saving around $200 dollars. Well saving is probably not the best word to use b/c at this point I dont feel like I have saved any money by purchasing this car. SO my tires come in and I take it to the shop and they throw them on and take it for a drive. Then the worst thing that can happen happened. The mechanic pulled back into the work bay -- NOOOOOO then he popped the hood. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I remember thinking "no no no its tires their is no reason to pop the hood for tires" Then Jason (the mechanic) motions to me to come out. Im like CRAP! SO I go out and I say its running great right tell me its running great. he gives a little laugh. Says sorry and asks me to watch something. He proceeds to start the engine and tells me to watch my plug wires. OH MY GOODNESS One of my plug wires is like swiss cheese and I can see the sparks coming out of the wire instead of going into my spark plug. I am in disbelief. They tell me that the shaking is coming from my engine firing maybe on three cylinders but possibly only 2 of the four and thus miss firing (if firing at all) on the other 1 - 2 and this is causing the engine to be massively out of balance and is in turn causinng the entire front end to shake. I just cant belive it. Then he tells me he called VW and plug wires are like 200 bucks. I flat out say "NO" , "There has to be someone who makes plug wires that are cheaper." SO he says he will check it out. SO far on my own I have found them for 70 online or 90 at autozone. SO I might just go to autozone and get em. All I have to say is this better fix the problem. B/c SO far I have replaced a transmission and tires and have had no luck. SO please pray that these dumb wires will do the trick. Thanks

Cheers