2004 Volkswagen Phaeton

Body style(s): 4-door sedan

Notes

    Having launched its first luxury SUV in the form of the Touareg, Volkswagen took the leap into the top-flight luxury car segment for 2004 with the Phaeton. The brainchild of VW chairman Ferdinand Piëch, the Phaeton was his vision of an S-Class rival, designed to be capable of running all day through the Sahara at 180 miles per hour (academic, since the car was limited to 155 in Germany and 130 in the States). Because he found ventilation systems made his asthma worse, his dream car had central heating, with vents concealed behind wooden panels to heat the car through convection. Piëch left before his dream hit the market, leaving VW management to sort out the mess of what Edmunds.com was soon to call "the best car nobody wanted." Volkswagen only brought the long-wheelbase model of its flagship across the Atlantic, equipped with either a 40-valve V-8 engine or the company's recent W-12 motor, which combined two narrow-angle V-6s on a common crankshaft, making an engine that was short but very wide. Although the Phaeton owed much in its drivetrain and design features to its corporate counterpart, the Audi A8, the Phaeton was a radically different car. Built out of steel, not aluminum, it was the heaviest car in its class, and configured for a smooth and luxurious ride, not the sporting bias of the Audi. Many questioned why Volkswagen would try to enter the luxury market in the first place, given their ownership of Audi, but aside from the Piëch factor, Volkswagen justified the model by saying that some 15% of its buyers traded up to luxury cars, and VW had no offerings for them. The Phaeton was intended to take on traditional luxury cars like the Benz S-Class or Lexus LS, leaving Audi to chase BMW at the sporty end of the luxury market. With four-wheel air springs, the car's ride was exceptionally smooth, although its bulk hindered maneuverability; this problem was even worse on the W12 version, where the bulky design of the engine made the car quite nose-heavy. The Phaeton was also the basis for Bentley's new grand-touring coupe, the Continental GT. In order to make their sedan a contender in the highly competitive luxury flagship sedan market, VW adopted a strategy of extensive feature content while undercutting the price of its main competitors, a formula used by Lexus in their LS 430. Four-zone automatic climate control with central heating (i.e., hidden vents) and a sophisticated dehumidifier, 18-way power driver's seat, leather-wood-brushed-aluminum trim, CD changer, power sunshade, and a comprehensive memory system were all included on the base V8 model. W12s added a more powerful sound system, a one-touch trunk closer, and heated rear seats. The twelve-cylinder version was inaugurated with 330 copies of a Premiere Edition. Meant to ease buyer sticker shock at Volkswagen's most expensive offering, the Premiere Editions were sold monospec, with only a Piano Black paint scheme. All W12 Premieres were sold with the Comfort Package, rear obstacle-detection system, and remote keyless entry (nearly $5000 in options; in fact, it had all of the options available on the W12 except for the 4-Seater Package). Considering that a Merc S600 cost nearly $35,000 more, this was quite a deal, but it was still an unpleasant surprise when the regular-production W12 arrived with a $10,000 price jump and none of the optional equipment as standard. It could, however, be customized with various paint schemes the 4-Seater Package, which offered a full-length floor console in wood, and heated, cooled, and massaging adjustable rear seats. Generally, the automotive press admired the car, but recognized that the "people's car" image of the VW brand would make the Phaeton a hard sell for many buyers, no matter what it merits might be.

Series: 2004-2006

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Volkswagen Phaeton sedan (W12: note 7-spoke wheels) [photo by Scott Jacobs, courtesy Edmunds.com].


Volkswagen Phaeton sedan [photo by Scott Jacobs, courtesy Edmunds.com].