NHTSA Complaint #11439051 — 2016 VOLKSWAGEN CC

My 2016 VW CC (VIN: [XXX]) has a clock spring failure. I brought my car in to Riverhead Bay Motors on 2/12/2019, with the hope of diagnosing and fixing the part. They had to order the part, so only diagnosis was done. Diagnosis confirmed that the clock spring (in VW’s own words from the bill): “Upon further diag found clock spring defective”). I was told in conversations prior to bringing the car in, with corporate, if they identified a torn clock spring as the cause, a case manager would look into and consider if my car perhaps had a faulty part and the fix could be covered by Volkswagen. After many days spent waiting for the opportunity to speak to a supervisor, I finally was able to on 2/15/2019. Volkswagen is refusing to acknowledge that my clock spring issue is the same as what prompted: both a recall, and an extended warranty, and is peer to of an active investigation—escalated to an engineering analysis--by the NHTSA (EA18-003). They are insisting I pay out of my own pocket to replace their defective product. Since the supervisor was unwilling to give any info on who made the part and whether the relation was causal, I spent some time this weekend using the NHTSA as a transparent resource. What I have found is that the faulty part in my car is the same one that was involved in a previous recall, and the same one involved in a voluntary extended warranty—although my VIN is not part of either action. Much of my own research has involved the review of the many piecemeal responses to NHTSA Inquiry EA18-003. The component which failed is Part number: 5K0-953-569 AS. The part is supplied by Valeo (otherwise referred to as Valeo Robust), and appearing to be in the class CW50/2012---for the VW CC model years 2012-2016 (see below, Table one: Clock spring part identifier). According to confirmation with Michelle Stokes at Riverhead Bay Motors on 2/18/2019—part 5K0-953-569 AS is THE ONLY clock spring that is available to my car INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6