Vehicle was running rough, pulled over and shut off engine. Restarted and vehicle still idled very rough. While calling VW roadside assistance, I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. When I opened the hood I found a large amount of what looked and smelled like electrical smoke. Within one minute, the engine caught on fire. 911 was called and a fire truck came out to extinguish the fire, which was contained in the engine compartment. Vehicle was towed to dealer in traverse city, mi, where it was inspected and VW of America contacted me and said it was an ignition coil fire. They have made an offer to buy back the car. This vehicle had a previous ignition coil failure (Feb., 2007/10,686 miles) resulting in melted wiring. There were also failures of the turbocharger, catalytic converter and ignition switch prior to the engine fire. Service reports are available for all of the failures prior to the engine fire on 10/03/07.

- Petoskey, MI, USA