Driving about 70. Normally drive in auto mode but was coming down a long hill so did some manual shifting. Never over-revved the engine. Flat smooth road when 1st heard noise like I just ran over a dog that had just eaten a big piece of metal. Pulled over to the side under glide power. No apparent or visible damage, no fluid leaks, but unable to drive car. 79 mile tow to mechanic. Left axle sheared off where it joins the transmission. Never heard any typical CV grinding or clicking noise. Ended up replacing both axles (the boot on the other side torn so I figured the joints were ruined).

Didn't see any CV joint problems listed for this car so wondering what went wrong. Familiar with CV joint noise so wondering, if that was the problem, why didn't I ever hear the typical sound of failing CV joints? Why did it shear off? Looks like it got cut through with an electric saw with an ugly grit.

P.S. It is now a month since that incident and the same thing has happened to the Mrs. while she was driving it home. Similar road conditions. Tow driver found one bolt (a star bolt, looks like a CV bolt) and a bearing but could get the bearing as it rolled away. Towed to the same mechanic. What am I in for? Did he screw up the axle job? I'm losing my religion on this car! Towed in over the weekend so he's going to open it up tomorrow for the diagnosis.

Update from Aug 4, 2015: It's been about 2 weeks now that the EOS has been out of the shop from its second visit. Without admitting fault, and fixing it completely on his dime, he replaced one of the axles that had somehow popped off. He said he couldn't figure out how it could have come undone unless the guy who worked on it was so idiotic that he failed to properly torque down the CV bolts. He said it was odd that the axle had not popped out of the transmission as it had the first time they worked on it. He has a high degree of confidence in his mechanics so I let it go at that

He did ask if I would return the VW back to his shop after a couple of weeks so that he can re-examine the axles to check their condition. That will happen this weekend (in about 5 days). I'll let you know what he sees.

Update from Sep 11, 2015: OK so the car went back only to do the follow up check. Nothing out of the ordinary. Everything OK. It has now been about 6 weeks since that time and the car now runs flawlessly (other than going through a quart of oil every 1000 miles or so). I believe this car may one day become a classic since not that many were made. I guess time will tell the tale. We won't know what that is since the Mrs. wants to replace the car with something that has a regular auto trans instead of the DSG unit!