It seems that Volkswagen’s flagship is waiting for the perfect moment to make a big entrance.
The Phaeton may seem a dull limousine, but the thing is actually one of the most advanced and over-engineered cars of all time.
It was the brainchild of former VW AG chairman Ferdinand Piech, the man who came up with the 1001 horsepower hypercar idea. Needless to say, the attention to details and supreme engineering techniques commissioned by Piech were carried over to the ultra-luxury “people’s car”, which remains a proper piece of kit even by today’s high standards.
Mind you, the car is built on the Volkswagen D1 platform, along with the Bentley Continental GT and the Continental Flying Spur, which says something about its quality standards.
Even though its production began in 2002, the car is still being manufactured in a facelifted guise, and apparently will still be for a little while because the German car manufacturer doesn’t really want to release its replacement right now. In fact, according to Bloomberg, Volkswagen is delaying the introduction of the new Phaeton as the automaker seeks to improve returns on the slow-selling luxury sedan by lowering production and material costs. Moreover, even though a new version of VW’s high-end limousine is ready for production, the manufacturer is reworking the model.
Basically, the new variant of the automobile is ready to shine but the German car manufacturer is trying everything to cut its losses with the Phaeton, mainly because it’s the slowest selling Volkswagen still available for purchase. I wonder what Piech thinks of this.
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