New VW Phaeton undisguised

Why?....

Why would they bother, did anyone buy the last one?

By kronalds on 12 April, 2010, 1:10pm

Jeeezz - that looks even more boring than the last one.

By gherkins123 on 12 April, 2010, 1:29pm

Haha, have they got a massive surplus of these or something?

I mean is there any other reason they keep churning out this car? And why is anyone going to choose this car over a 7 series, XJ or S class? Its the same as a polo at the front.

By liveforever on 12 April, 2010, 8:02pm

That said its a hell of a car for 10k...

thinking of buying one I saw on autotrader, 10k for all that car is a bargain, but not for 60+

By liveforever on 12 April, 2010, 8:04pm

I cannot think of even one good reason that someone would spend all that money to buy a polo/golf/passat/tiguan/touareg
look alike limo. Are there people who are still geting paid tons of money to come up with a project like that for VW??
Its so ugly, it reminds me of the Scoda Superb!

By kirra1 on 13 April, 2010, 7:31am

VAG Luxury Taxi

VW already has an overpriced and mediocre premium (supposedly?) priced range of cars, in the form of the Audi brand...Does the world really need any more of these third division players products within the luxury car market?

Still will make a good Taxi in three years time when its lost 2/3-3/4 of its price, either after sitting on some dealers forecourt or after a rental companys released it?

By LegioIXHispana on 13 April, 2010, 10:51am

To buy or not to buy

Above comments smack of narrow mindedness. The VW empire has a wealth of technology at ist disposal and produces a first rate vehicle.
When Hyundai appeared on the market, people snickered. Look at where they are now.

By Techno on 13 April, 2010, 2:18pm

How Long

"Volkswagen will be hoping to finally establish their luxury saloon in the fiercely competitive market." A third facelift? - this car has been on sale since 2003. Hyundai would not approach such an important segment with this kind of lip service. The "VW empire" does produce come great, great products but its size makes it expensive to continue to compete aggressively everywhere it participates.

By ronguillard on 13 April, 2010, 2:35pm

Brilliant skoda

Buy a Superb, change some badges, save yourself 50K. Brilliant!

By theos on 13 April, 2010, 6:00pm

Oh really?

The new Phaeton is likely to be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September this year.


For a motoring mag this is a bit poor! Incase you missed what you said wrong, Frankfurt motorshow is every 2 years, so with it bieng last year, theis year is the turn of Automechanika.

So would it be debuting in Paris then?

Still why bother tarting up a dead horse, it cannot be making them money going on how poorly it has sold?

By ExtraD on 13 April, 2010, 6:06pm

Pointless

The only point of the Phaeton was to provide a platform for Bentley! At least that stopped it being a total disaster. This facelift makes the A8 look exciting - is that the point this time?

By Anorak17 on 13 April, 2010, 7:08pm

Packaging

In response to 'To buy or not to buy', there seems little point in producing cutting edge technological ingredients then cramming them into such a lack lustre package. If the public stopped buying these power brands - Apple, BMW, VAG which now just deliver cynical, homogeneous and poor designs, perhaps these brands might be forced to return to what made them so powerful in the first place: great technology in sexy packaging.

By Designer_Drew on 14 April, 2010, 12:33pm

Beijing Show

ExtraD, I think you will find that the car is revealed at the Beijing Show. That's next week, according to my calendar.

Dan Strong
Auto Express

By DanStrong2 on 14 April, 2010, 5:41pm

Well we never got the current model in Australia you know Australian always pull off most of the time. But we hope to get this model if it avaible in Right drive. It may not get it W12 engine. But Let hope if James Bond drive it in his next movie as a rented car.

By deviras on 15 April, 2010, 10:11am

Taurus Looks Better

Even the 2010 Ford Taurus looks better : http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2009/01/2010_Ford_Taurus_SHO.jpg

By vazirncars on 15 April, 2010, 3:09pm

Not sure!

It looks the luxury limo from the side. But from the front the grill, headlights and bumper look like theyr'e off an MPV. It will probably be very expensive. Don't know if it will take much custom from Mercedes, Lexus, BMW etc.

By bigbazza on 15 April, 2010, 4:11pm

Trickle down. Or is that Trickle up?

Well this is certainly a snoozer because as all the other commenters have mentioned, the Phaeton is rather boring as a package.
HOWEVER, I think the more interesting speculation is that the changes in the Phaeton (which hugely underpin the Bentley Continental line) will trickle down to (or in this case up) to the new Continental's dash controls and any other chassis changes.

By jimc1968 on 15 April, 2010, 4:21pm

One of the most pointless car from VW, does the Audi A8 comptete against tghe S-class or 7 series or LS ?? and yet they bring this out..
Phaeton designers and marketers are smoking something serious !!

By hugo_b on 15 April, 2010, 6:40pm

Jetta

It looks like a great big Jetta.

By chickenfeed on 15 April, 2010, 8:07pm

A bargain Bentley

the Bentley for the non-brits. Stupid Brits still think Bentley is theirs.

By julianlee4 on 17 April, 2010, 6:05am

Only ever seen 2 on the roads, any need for a facelift?? Maybe a reintroduction would be better!

And as a "brit" I don't regard myself as "stupid" like you suggest "julianlee" so keep your pathetic comments to yourself

By craigwatson1 on 17 April, 2010, 5:15pm

julianlee4

craigwatson1 is perfectly correct, keep your pathetic comments to yourself and whilst your at it...Keep your crappy comments within your own countries auto mags! (if it has any?) Its like having an illegal immigrant posting notes on here, with the likes of julianlee4 et al on it...Sod off and post off!

I think Auto Express should ban all non British postings on here.British mag, British postings...

By LegioIXHispana on 18 April, 2010, 7:15pm

craigwatson1/LegioIXHispana

Get a life you two!

By bigbazza on 18 April, 2010, 8:35pm

Beijing Show

Dan good to see you have corrected the article to say Beijing rather then Frankfurt.

By ExtraD on 20 April, 2010, 6:53pm

The world's first stealth limousine?

They may have sold more than we think: the Phaeton is so bland that it's invisible on the road, ideal for the shy and retiring executive.
As a used buy, though, what a cracking proposition.

By snappyuk on 22 April, 2010, 8:24am

All hail the Über-VW

In some markets where brand ego is less important than value for money the Phaeton is quite a success going toe to toe with the S Class, 7 Series, A8, LS and XJ on quality as well. Even the domestic German market has been slow to accept the Über-VW but further east the sales figures are much more impressive.

And let's not forget that a Russian, Estonian or Latvian customer in this market sector will be looking at all the aforementioned competitors also (well, probably not the XJ on reflection) before making the decision to go Phaeton. In fact these markets are just as image-driven at the higher echelons as our own but the implied perception of VW is much higher.

Everyone I know in the motor industry who has driven a Phaeton thinks it is absolutely superb but it is not industry insiders who go out and make them a sales success. You can lead a horse to water etc, etc.

By plawrence1 on 22 April, 2010, 10:15am

VW Futon...

I'm sorry, but I'm finding it incredibly hard to find anything interesting to say about this car. Hmmm, lets see.... It looks a little like a series two Vauxhall Omega from the rear quarter. No, that's not very interesting, ummm.... *snores*

By sgtgrash on 26 April, 2010, 10:55pm

What the Commache Proverb?

If your horse is dead - dismount? The other one in English is its like flogging a dead horse!

And thats what VWs doing here because of the fanaticism of some people at the top in Wolfsburg. In a way its rather akin to the EURO now and people are deteimined to make it work immaterial of what it costs!

What make this possible is the extremly good sales of the Bentley models built on the same platform in Dresden.

By vandenplas4litre on 4 May, 2010, 10:02am

Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond

@kirra1:
Quite right. If you want a limousine-sized car at knock-down prices simply buy a Skoda Superb, which is a VW in disguise and has fantastic write-ups. £25k will do it.
As for Krauts posting on these pages, we all know that the Germans are incapable of even the most basic even-handedness and are as biased as the day is long. They are also habitual cheats so my message to that respondant and everyone else is this: if you're British you should be buying a beautiful new Jaguar XJ if you can afford a luxury car, and not a similarly excellent but boring German exec like the BMW 7-series or Merc S-Class (forget the new Audi A8 which is even more hideously generic than the other two).
Now bugger off back to the Bundesliga or bomb the bastards!

By sirsidneyruffdiamond on 4 May, 2010, 11:38am

which is the best value for money?

you want a good reliable mile eater for use in the real world, a big boot loads of room in the cabin there are a few choices, XJ8-3.0D/ 730D series/S320-Class, A8 3.0TDI or Lexus LS all will cost you around the £55-65.000. Facelift VW Phaeton 3.0TDI SWB is available for£38.000 or less if you can find a pre-registered one with a load of extras on, yes it looks like a oversize Passat but if its as reliable as my 2002 1.9TDI 130 who cares. I'd Spend the extra 10k on the Phaeton a Skoda Superb doesn't even come close.

By C30SE_Straight_Six on 26 July, 2010, 12:34pm

malandme

Well, I bought one a year ago a 2008 model & all that I can say after having driven BMW's, Jags Mercs etc is this car is simply superb. 4 wheel drive at this time of year is excellent, yes there are a lot of 'controls' but once you have mastered them they do what they are meant to do! It is by far one of the most comfortable cars I have ever driven & would recommend them to all....bar none! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.

By malandme on 21 December, 2010, 2:21pm