UPDATE: Problem must have been due to leaving my trunk open and running down my battery- b/c I have had no further problems with my battery...
HOWEVER- NEW PROBLEM (solved- but wondering what the VWDealership Notes mean.)
2 or 3 times over the course of a week- My car cracked fine in the morning. Then after stopping to get gas, the post office, etc ... I get back in my car and it would not turn over. I put the key in, and everything comes on, but turn the key a nothing happens. After about 3 minutes the car would crank without issue.
The following week this happened again (after driving about 2 hours) when I stopped at a gas station. This time it never cranked. (also it was stuck in park). I had it towed to a mechanic. They could not figure out the issue (said is was not the starter)... and I had the take a stab at replacing the ignition switch- but not the problem either.
Then had it towed to VW Dealership. Could not figure out the problem after an initial 1 hour diagnostic. They then said it was the starter? But on their notes- they replaced the starter and the Power Supply Relay. After reading many forums- it seems like almost everyone with this same issue... Said it ended up being the Power Supply Relay... and NOT the Starter.
So I'm wondering if based on the Mechanic notes below- Could the issue have just been the power supply relay itself (in other words do the notes indicate that the problem could have been just the power supply relay)? Here are the VW Dealership Notes (The total cost at VW was $1200):
FOUND NO KOEO DASH LIGHTS, NO START. FOUND FUSES SC 1,2,3,4 HAVE NO POWER. THESE ARE SUPPLIED 15 POWER FROM J519. FOUND WHEN APPLIED POWER, DASH LIGHTS COME ON, BUT NO START. FOUND WHEN APPLIED POWER AND TRYING TO START, CKT BREAKER TRIPS. FOUND DAMAGE TO MAIN BATTERY GROUND. CLEANED TERMINAL AND FOUND NO CHANGE. UNPLUG STARTER TERMINAL. FOUND 15 POWER NO LONGER DROPS. SUSPECT INTERNALLY SHORTED STARTER. FOUND VEHICLE STILL HAS NO POWER TO FUSES SC1-4. FOUND FAULTY POWER SUPPLY RELAY. SUGGEST REPLACE POWER SUPPLY RELAY AND STARTER AND RETEST.
REPLACED STARTER AND POWER SUPPLY RELAY. VEHICLE STARTS AND RUNS AS IT SHOULD.