I've owned this van for less than a year (first VW I have ever owned).

A few weeks ago, I started to have trouble with my van as I drove down a
road.  I would get power surges.  Later it got worse, where the engine would
momentarily loose all power.  Then one day, the van just quit, it wouldn't
start, and it wouldn't even turn over (there was no electrical power).  As I
sat in the van wondering what the heck was going on, I suddenly noticed this
smoke rising from under the front passenger seat.  Quickly, I slid the seat
forward and opened the battery compartment (the lid was quite warm).  I
discovered that the battery terminals had worn the paint off from the metal
lid that covered the battery and caused a nasty short.  Apparently, the
paint was the only thing insulating the battery from the metal cover.

This looks awfully strange to me.  I can't believe that VW designed it this
way.  Could it be that this van has the wrong battery installed?

ras