[ebrinkley]

last thursday lost the engine to a 2004 c4s with 56,500 miles. it quietly lost power and subsequently would not turn over. no warnings on the dash signals prior to the failure. no leaking immediately, but over time lost much of it's oil.
purchased new (single owner) and serviced on schedule. never tracked. used for commuting. pepe porsche of white plains, ny explained it was the shaft connecting the engine and the transmission, so i'm not sure it's the intermediate shaft bolt referred to in many comments in other threads (but i presume it is).
based on what seems to be a statistically relevant number of engine failures of same sort, i'd say we have a trend.