Same as the others. The curse of the 2011 Jetta. Had a parasitic short for months, the thing is dead if you don't drive it daily. Maybe it used to last a week, like you'd have to jump it in the airport parking lot, now it needs to be jumped daily, then its fine for the day.

Then the radio went out. Gone

So I'm trying to find the short using a multimeter set for amperage, trying to find the wayward fuse, and the wipers go out. The front windshield wipers stop working. The back one, on the hatchback, still works.

So I'll be replacing the radio, it looks like, still got the wiper problem which is a safety issue, and still gotta find the short. It was my first VW.

Update from Aug 5, 2020: IT WAS THE RADIO,

Once I pulled out the dead radio the parasitic short stopped being a thing,

Got a new radio in there, had a shop install the $30 back up camera that came with it and I'm back in business.

Similar to other folks with the same complaint. Radio stopped working for no apparent reason. I checked all fuses myself first in the car and under the hood. I then took to the dealer and they checked the fuses in the radio and the amp and told me the radio was "fried". Only solution is to buy a new radio. (My dealership did not offer an exchange or refurbished unit). I asked about buying a used one and putting it in and they said that can be done but you have to be sure to get the VIN and codes put they won't warranty it. If I buy the new one they will provide a 12-month warranty. You could also go to a non-dealer store and get a retail factory installed but risk issues with all the electronics syncing and working correctly.

In short, I agree with others. I think VW got a bad batch of radios or there is some sort of small flaw somewhere but not enough folks are impacted to trigger a recall. Wife and I still like the car and while I think this is highway robbery I'm going to pay the $ for the new radio and go about my day. Wish I could give better news but that's what it is.

this is the SECOND time the same type of Factory Radio died in this 2011 Jetta ... 1st was in April 2016; replaced @ Dealership to the 'tune' of $800

Dealership says warranties on electrical components are only good for 1 year, as per VW

They claim to have reached out to VW directly to see if there's some sort of consideration ... a replacement would mean the THIRD $800 Radio in this 6 year old car

Not going to play the game again

Either going Ebay for a "pull", for @ $125 and take my chances, or Crutchfield for a Sony or Blaupunkt or similar

My biggest concern about third party is losing Phone integration ... with the Factory Radio ... when it's working ... My BlackBerry fully integrates into the car.

I can place/receive calls, send/receive texts, all by voice command

Worried that I might lose this

Went online to TDI group to research issue of one-minute-works-fine/next-minute-radio-is-dead. Apparently it's a common enough complaint. None of the posted suggestions worked for me: blown fuse? Pulled out all the 10 & 15 amp fuses, waited 60 secs to reinstall, nothing. No idea which fuse went radio b/c no diagram incl'd w/ the manual. Can't/won't attempt to pull out radio RCD-510 Premium [6 disc changer] to test fuse supposedly at the back of the radio. Also, it's full of irretrievable cds that belong to the local library. A side-effect is that there's a parasitic drain on the battery. Not knowing how fast that'd work, I disconnected the N battery cable overnight. When I reconnected it, other electronic voodoo happened and the radio still doesn't work: tripmeter went to zero, time is wacky, can't get speed on screen. It's at a local mechanic's now waiting for him to run ampmeter test to see if it's getting juice to the radio. Dealer is ~ hour away; I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow; don't want to throw $ at getting new radio when I'll be selling it back to VW in a couple months [The Scandal]. I just want to drive it for now w/o draining the battery or causing other electrical problems [oh, to get the BookOnTape back to the library]. When I get back from vacation I will follow up w/ dealer and VWUS to see why there's not been a recall on these obviously faulty radios and what the fix should be.

Got in the car for a long drive Saturday evening, and the radio was dead. Called the dealer Monday - service advisor said his 2010 did the same thing at about 65,000 miles, and that the only recourse was to replace it. I called VW Customer Care (the name makes me laugh), and they agreed to replace the radio (after a long discussion about warranty, mileage, etc ended when I asked WTF mileage had to do with the radio). I was told that sometimes it takes up to three weeks to get one after it is ordered, which should indicate that a LOT of these are being replaced. Anyway, the dealer - Stokes VW in North Charleston, SC waited for a week and a half to order the replacement, and had to call me to get the part number. The radio was at the dealership 2 business days after ordering it. I arrived first thing in the morning to have the radio replaced before I had to be at work. I had already removed the old radio, and opened the CD changer to get my CDs out. The service manager, seeing the opened radio chassis, refused to replace it - even tho I had brought the car in two weeks before (before removing the radio) so they could 'diagnose' the problem - because he said I had 'broken the seal' on the radio and he could not return it to the factory to be refurbished. I told them the radio worked as well now as it did in my car - it was broken anyway, and if they send them back to be rebuilt, then all the parts were there and they could rebuild it. Bottom line - both dealer and VW CC refused to honor their deal to replace the defective radio, and I will be headed to small claims court to resolve this. LOTS of people have problems with their VW radios: VW knows it is an issue, and they hope it will just go away.

While driving to an appointment, the radio on the car stopped working. The touch screen is completely black. Depressing the ON/OFF button does not change the status of the radio. The car speakers have no power (as the Bluetooth connectivity / hands-free phone use is also completely impaired). A check of the fuses finds that the 15A radio fuse is fine (BTW, the documentation in either the Owner's Manual or inside the Fuse Box is remarkably poor, thankfully a Google search found a description of the fuse box and there is only 1 X 15A fuse in the fuse box so this was easy to check). All other electrical components in the instrument cluster work fine. The problem seems - at this time - to be isolated to the radio.