I just booted up my Maxisys Mini, and see a system program update to V2.19 that mentions password reading for VW. I'm going to give this a try on several vehicles and i'll report back. 

 ok after some late nights working on side projects, i updated to the newest system update for vw, as well as the system software for the tool itself. was able to successfully pull up the correct SKC pin code to my 2000 TDI golf using the Maxisys Mini. finally... haven't tried it on my other cars yet. but for anyone keeping up on this thread, it actually worked. 

 I'll have to give it a try on my friends mk5 that i'll be working on soon. i'll let you know. my expectations are fairly low...