I recently purchased a new 2009 Volkswagen Passat cc sport vehicle through boardwalk Volkswagen of richardson Texas, who had the car shipped to their location from tynan's VW in Colorado. I picked up my brand new 2009 Volkswagen Passat cc sport vehicle with 24 miles on the afternoon of Saturday February 28, 2009. On Sunday, as I was driving, the car would not accelerate and fumes started coming out the engine compartment and transmission fluid leaked out and sprayed all over the engine rendering the car a safety hazard and fire hazard. The car was towed by VW roadside assistance to boardwalk VW, which upon closer inspection, they found the transmission lines mispositioned in such a way that the cooling fan motor cut the lines open causing catastrophic transmission failure. The engine compartment has been contaminated with potentially flammable transmission fluid, and the transmission was run with extremely low levels of fluid by the roadside assistance service to get it on and off the tow vehicle, seriously reducing the market value and safety of the vehicle. I went to take pictures of the compromised vehicle with the faulty transmission line routing and another Passat cc vehicle with the correct transmission line routing. To see the problem, the car was raised, and the underside engine compartment cover was taken off. In the vehicle in question, the transmission lines were routed in front of a radiator tube, leaving them in close contact with the rotating radiator fan, which eventually cut open the lines causing the leak. The fluid leaked into the engine compartment and was blown into the entire engine by the radiator fan. In the other vehicle, the transmission lines were routed behind the radiator tube, which shields them from coming into contact with the fan. This can be used to start a recall on all Passat cc models to have them checked for incorrect routing of the transmission lines, which can cause catastrophic transmission failure and customer problems.

- Richardson, TX, USA