RE: Volkswagen Phaeton: Guilty Pleasures

[Axionknight]

robinessex said:

You can make it more interesting if you want to:-

You are missing the whole point of the car if you do that to it, IMO.

[Hackney]

Anyone selling a W12 please contact me.

The idea of a ludicrous engine in an anonymous car really appeals to me.
(previous owner of Passat W8 )

[Zammy]

Good article, always been very intrigued by these particularly the V10 diesel, in a strange way very tempting for me!

[toohuge]

My father has a late model Phaeton (I think 2013 iirc).... it's absolutely brilliant. A complete bargain for the level of refinement and quality you are afforded.

One thing that you do need to take into consideration is the high parts cost for what appear to be trivial things. There is a huge amount of technology on these cars and a lot of it is bespoke to the Phaeton...

[Jex]

I borrowed a V6 TD one of these for a weekend once. At the time I had a Golf GT TDI. I was impressed, but even more so when I returned to my Golf which suddenly seemed rough and noisy. I have always fancied one - I put one in my (unpublished) £100k garage. The understatedness has always appealed to me.
Jex

[DevonPaul]

I went to look at one of these a few years ago - huge boot space, enormous luxury and performance for sod all money.

Sadly I took the Mrs, who sat inside it, noted the random mix of brushed and polished metal, plastic looking wood, flecks of carbon fibre, and seats the colour of David Dickenson, and proclaimed it "like Dave had asked Arthur to do a cheap makeover of the Winchester Club".

So I ended up with the Maser. I'd still probably only change it for a W12 with an LPG conversion, or a Bristol.

[DuncanM23]

Magnus-2tdbl said:

Nice to see a Phaeton article - I've owned a W12 for the past three years, one of apparently only 5 450PS cars on the road in the UK (according to howmanyleft.co.uk). It was VW UK's demo car originally, one of the cars to wear the W12 VWW plate, so it's got most of the kit one would want. It's a great car - not flawless, but every time I think of replacing it, I go for a drive and am reminded that there's really nothing for the money that would be a more pleasant experience.

I may have driven that car when delivering demo company car vehicles back in 2003 (is it a burgundy colour with a pale leather interior?). I collected it in Halifax, dropped someone else off nearby (watching TV while we waited!) and then brought it back to Oxfordshire. It took a while to work out how to get the aircon on, and I think I spent the whole way playing with the seat, but what a car! Seriously quick off the line, quiet, comfortable, refined, huge, and almost entirely anonymous!

[ManOpener]

I love the Phaeton for its quirkiness. The rare V8 petrol sounds pretty interesting to me, but I can see they're belt cam and a change costs about a grand, which is frankly hilarious. I'd probably have one over an A8.

[patmahe]

The understated nature of these is what appeals. What other car potentially capable of 186mph looks this subtle and has such luxury for the same price.

Power and presence (to those that know) without the need to shout about it

[BIRMA]

Initially when I bought mine I was going to get AMD to re-map it as they could easily achieve 1000Nm torque at just over tick-over but having had the car for a while now it does the job fine.
At the motorway limit you are just over tick-over so when you floor it its almost cartoon like and the silence is interrupted by what I can only describe as a deep volcano like rumble you really have to restrain yourself from this wave of torque.
You take a gamble to a certain degree buying one because I understand an engine out job is forty hours and special equipment is required to do the job, mine has a automatic boot function that refuses to co-operate but I live with it. The fabulous cast aluminium boot struts look like they could hold up a small bridge and inside despite the plastic bits its a nice place to be.
It shares its chassis and suspension with the Bentley Continental when I looked inside a secondhand £40K Flying Spur the other day you can see all the control functions are the same on the seats and dash its just a bit more bling/expensive in the Bentley.

Here are some photos of mine excuse the fact I played too much Scrabble as a youngster but Phat One does raise the odd smile from the occupants of the car behind on several occasions.
Mine has the four individual seats that each have their own massage and cooling function and reclining ability along with individual air-con zones, my pervy mates love going on a trip in it plus it has a stonking sound system as standard.

[GJR68]

That's a sweet car, BIRMA. I love these and have been tempted on a few occasions. Potential huge bills though and they will go wrong at some point.

[Nabbott]

I had the v6 TDI - bought from a VW main dealer as an ex-demo car. I kept it for 7 years and 96k miles - still miss it. I used to love the fact that I'd always see Merc S classes on the way to work but never another Phaeton 😀

[RDMcG]

Drove the W12 for a month. It was an amazing car,fast,luxurious, quiet and anonymous. Real Swiss banker stuff.
I do not ever buy large cars like this, but it was nonetheless impressive.

[daemon]

I dont see the point. Never have

If you want a big luxo barge theres any amount to choose from without resorting to one of these.

They're not particularly cheap either.

[rtz62]

Cheeterfield must be Pharton-Central, I see quite a few here for what is an 'anonymous car'
One, a silver one, has some aftermarket /VAG alloys that really set the car off without coming over all shouty, or indeed spoiling that anonymity.
I always remember TG testing it, being amazed by the engineering that had gone I to the boot hinge, and the fact that Piech had thoughtfully arranged for one headlamp washer to deploy, spray and retract before the other did the same, purely to ensure that the driver didn't have his vision compromised.
Like others on here, I'm astounded, when you get close up, of the paint finish and panel gaps, it really is top-drawer. And if it isn't, I'd suggest tha the car has visited the local body shop.
I'd love to have one, heart says the petrol 6.0 W12 or 5.0 V10 TDI, but head would suggest a remapped 3.0 TDi.
In fact, I like them so much I think one of these will replace a certain premium car in my PH £100k garage when I submit it....

[BIRMA]

GJR68 said:

That's a sweet car, BIRMA. I love these and have been tempted on a few occasions. Potential huge bills though and they will go wrong at some point.

Absolutely spot on there, I am a person who doesn't mind a high risk gamble and I bought mine with the mind-set if it goes wrong I'll have to throw it away or at least strip it down as it's worth a lot as parts. I had a budget of £40K to spend on such a car so I'm up on the deal so far and still think it was the right choice at £10K with only 50K miles on the clock.

[swisstoni]

Always kept an eye on these as a potential bargain barge. But they've never become particularly cheap. Too popular as cabs I suspect and so not many low milers either.

[Gasmangeoff]

I ran one of the early Phaeton's for 5 years. I bought it direct from VW at two years old (it's shown in one of your photos here - I changed the plate to my own version of VWW (I'm a GWW!) and it never showed it's age. I loved the car, a W12 with more power than I ever needed and 4WD, it did everything well - when it was on the road. Sadly the electrical system is fragile and I took an age and too much money trying to get it fixed. VW weren't interested (won't be going back there again) and eventually I couldn't risk being off the road again so traded. It's still out there somewhere, no doubt with a permanently on engine warning light but making someone smile.
Having got the experience out of my system in a small sporty number for a few years I'm now back in the big car league with a Maserati Quattroporte that really makes me smile. Good luck all you VW drivers, my hearts now in Italy!!

[daemon]

swisstoni said:

Always kept an eye on these as a potential bargain barge. But they've never become particularly cheap. Too popular as cabs I suspect and so not many low milers either.

Too few of them sold to become bargain barges.

Its like that big thing Citroen did - the C6 - snow-off-a-ditch depreciation potential but they only sold about 8 so they were never cheap on the used market.

Alfa 166 was another one. The facelifted one was a lovely car, but nobody bought it so few bargains to be had.

THUS - why lumber yourself with a big VW when its not that cheap to buy?

[Rumblestripe]

I think the principle reason these never sold well was that they look, even to a moderately experienced eye, like a Passat. I the world of "prestige" motoring, anonymity isn't a sales point, it's the kiss of death. If you are spending £(insert price of Phaeton when new) the Audi/Beemer/Merc pilots want everyone to KNOW how much they've spent (or at least a sizeable number of them do).

"Nice Passat, mate" would be the kiss of death...