I just realized they did have a place to request a rental. I was used to having my old dealership provide me a loaner. Good news is that they are finishing it up and I'll be able to pick it up in a little over an hour.
Please do make sure to log that NHTSA complaint buddy!
I dropped my wife's 2015 SE off this morning. It's 2.5 months out of warranty, but I have tracked the coolant loss and there is visible corrosion as I posted above, so I'm hopeful it will be covered since it's a highly known repeat issue. We'll see.
Edit 2/21/20: An update to post
#227 and the above comment...
My wife's car was goodwill covered for the repair. They did the thermostat and water pump together.
Thermostat is -M revision (same as my 2017 Sport got back in April 2019), water pump is -C revision.
We were just 3.5 weeks outside the 1 year / 12k repeat repair coverage warranty and 2.5 months outside of the powertrain by time, but still under by miles. We have serviced that car at the dealership a few times, including customer pay 6AT service (non-DSG), and an alignment and we own multiple VWs.
When I spoke to him about continuing coverage for this issue, the Service Director stated that all of those things combined with the fact that the corrosion and leaking of that much fluid likely hadn't occurred within just the last 3 weeks, gained us near instant approval from VWoA for repeat repair coverage. Multiple cars, even some dealer service, and overall loyalty goes a long way, apparently.
He feels we will eventually see extended coverage for this issue, similar to the MK6.
Invoice of the work done: