Phaeton Phantasy

I lifted this from a new post on the VWVortex forum... so, it's not mine. I just like it a lot.

I know this may be a little indulgent, but there are so many fantastic little nuggets of trivia associated with the Phaeton I was wondering whether we could put as many of them together as possible (so as to keep passengers entertained for... ooooh... at least 100 miles )

Just add any bits that haven't already been mentioned!

1) Has a chassis so stiff (35,000nm/degree) that you could, in theory, bolt a Golf GTi on to a 3m long metal pole, bolt the pole on the Phaeton and the body would flex by one degree.

2) Was designed to cruise at 186mph with an outside temperature of 50 degrees centrigrade whilst keeping the interior at 22 degrees centrigrade. (W12)

3) The German Chancellor, the Pope and Kim Jong Il are all driven aroung in Phaetons.

4) 100 patents were filed during its design.

5) The air conditioning tracks the position and intensity of the sun.

6) Provides the underpinnings of the Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur (just with extra cow and tree)

7) The air conditioning was specifically designed not to upset Dr Piech's asthma.

8) Was the first car in the world with 4-zone air conditioning.

9) It's the only car in its market segment that is hand-built.

Phaeton Phrenzy

So, last night I spent a few quality hours phiddling with the German Phaeton website, and looking at pictures of the 08 mildly re-styled Phaeton from the Geneva auto show. Holy crap! Now, I want to move to Berlin and live there so I can drive one of these Phaetons all the time.

The 2008 Phaeton. It's HOT. And it's not available here.



First, there's this amazing piano black wood trim that one can order in Germany (and other, more advanced countries) that's the same thing one can get in a Bentley Continental (which, if you recall, is the same car, built in the same factory as the Phaeton.)




They've also added a dash more dashing chrome trim...



The taillights are just a bit more dramatic - designed to look deeper and richer, although the shape hasn't changed. Yes, I'm a Phaeton Phreak, I can tell the difference..



The headlights are more Star Trekky with double projector beam bi-xenon lamps and the turn signal incorporated into the inboard projector housing, which is different from the long strip that used to run along the bottom of the headlight structure..



More of the chrome increase, a view of the amazing, $4,000 "piano black" paint job and new wheels that are VERY COOL...



This year, a DVD navigation system (which, from the screen prints still isn't quite as zippy as more updated systems, but at least everything's on a single disc with faster data access.

Anyway, I "configured" a German 08 Phaeton last night - 146,000 Euros. Now, let's do some math. A Euro is $1.35. $197,600. The same price as a Bentley Continental GT (for the same car, frankly.)

They sold for about 60% of that here, and still didn't have any takers. No wonder they pulled out of the market.

Speaking of REALLY expensive, the Andersen window people were here last night giving me an estimate - $8600 for six windows. Yurg. "We finance."