EeziBleed
Everyone knows your car's brake system should be flushed, at a minimum, on a bi-annual basis - you aren't leaving that same moisture riddled fluid in your car for 4 years are you? Man, do you realize how much water is now sitting down at your calipers slowly rusting away the piston until the point where the piston won't retract nicely? For shame.
There are 2 ways you can do a brake bleed on a car. The pump method and the pressure method. The normal shade tree mechanic method is to get a helper to sit in the car and pump the brake pedal as you move from caliper to caliper and open and close all the bleeder valves (or use a set of Speedbleeders so you can skip the open/close cycle). The downfall of this method is that it requires a helper and there is a possibility that your helper could push the brake pedal all the way to the floor. Often times, this forces the master cylinder to overextend itself and results in you having to spend major bucks on a new master cylinder.
The other way to bleed brakes has largely been left to the professionals. They use a fairly expensive device that sucks the brake fluid from the master cylinder via the caliper bleed valves. You can buy a similar device from Griotts Garage and the like, but be prepared to spend in the neighborhood of $200.
You can also attempt the pressure method with a Miti-Vac and the proper accessories. Although, I find the Miti-Vac a pain more often than it's a savior and I've never been fond of it as a brake bleeding tool.
Which brings us to the device pictured above. For $28 you get a bottle you fill with clean brake fluid, attach to your master cylinder and pressurize via a spare tire. You then simply move around the car and open each bleeder valve until clean brake fluid flows out. Couldn't get much simpler.
Being a tad anal about brakes I use an empty bottle to force out all the brake fluid then I fill it and run pristine fluid through the car's lines.
Just a tip: VW's, and I have to assume other cars, have a proportioning valve that's tied into the suspension. Under braking, as the rear end lightens a valve reduces braking pressure to the rear wheels. If, while you're doing your bleed, you jack the rear end of the car up to make access to the bleed valves easier you may find that the proportion valve has interpreted this as a lightened load and will reduce flow to the back brakes and therefore make bleeding them impossible. Either leave the rear on the ground or use a set of ramps or jack the car up via the suspension so that the full weight of the rear is borne by the rear suspension.
The EeziBleed works as advertised, is simple and effective and takes less time to use than the drive to your local mechanic. It's so simple you'll probably do your brakes on an annual basis.
On a motorcycle note, I'm thinking of getting a scrap master cylinder cover for the bikes so that I can tap them and use the EeziBleed on the bike. Should make brake and clutch bleeding a no brainer.