Damn, to bad. I actually didnt mind this car. Especially at the discount prices they were offering. I actually got to drive this car when it first came out 2 years ago. What a well built car. Beautiful interior. However there were others that I would still rather have. The consumers have spoken. High price and Volkswagon dont mix.

 

I think even the non auto enthusiast saw this coming. What a blunder, what a car driven by ego. Bye, so long, peace out, don't let the door hit you on the **** on the way out.

 

and its POLL TIME!!!

 

im sorry but this is a stupid question, but what does MY 2006 mean? i mean i know what 2006 means but when yall put MY in front of or behind it, i just dont understand LOL

 

LMAO. You and your polls.

 

MY=Model Year

 

Bummer, BUMMER, BUMMER.

In spite of the lousy German electronics, this is a marvelous road car.....and is one of the few expensive luxury cars that more-or-less is worth what it costs....especially in the W12 model. Have any of you guys seen the INTERIOR on this car?......It could shame the Queen Mary. And it comes standard with VW 4-Motion AWD as well.
This car would sell if VW just would market it better, emphasize what a bargain it is, give the technicians at the dealerships better training on it, and stop treating customers like chumps.

But no, instead of doing it RIGHT, VW is just turn-tailing and running away, and taking the car back to Germany. Shame, shame.

Come on, VW.....if you're going to give up on the V8, at LEAST keep the W12. The Phaeton W12, compared to the M-B and BMW V12's, which both cost WELL over $100,000 and have even WORSE electronics, is a steal at 90K. The smart 12-cylinder luxury-car shopper ( and yes, they ARE out there ) will write his / her check out for a Phaeton.

 

Why not have it sell under a new Luxury name instead of VW? Its a shame, its a beautiful, well engineered car.

That car was not given a chance to show all the potential it had... thanks to the branding direction VW directors took.

 

I would've voted, Goodbye to Phaeton in US, but I do care and it's a shame this nice, nice limousine is going due to bad marketing and decisions by a VW leadership that is out-of-touch with the market. Why it was not made an Audi (I know the A8 is there) or some other special brand is beyond me. The Phaeton to me seemed to be another Q45, except that the Phaeton looked substantive.

The wood is from Queen Mary, I heard somewhere. I sat inside a Phaeton at the LA Auto Show and the interior put Mercedes and BMW to shame (but not Lexus!).

 

While I agree 100% that the VW clearly has comparable features, 1/2 the reason to buy a car this expensive is to show off. I for one won't and will not in the future drop seriuos coin for a car with no image or prestige. Sorry. Yeah, its a solid car and you make a great point about why it should stay.

But people want the fun and the smirk of "yes, that is a S-class" or "that is my 745" something instantly recognized.

Who wants to drop 80k large on a car and spend your evening explaining the rationality behind your decision and why your VW is better than the status quo?

thats just me and the market feels the same way

There are a lot of "good" expensive cars with NO MOJO in America. A8, XJ8, Q45 are 3 more

 

Well, the same platform.....and many of its features......are already available in the long-wheelbase Audi A8, ( and I understand Audi may do a V12 or W12 for this car ) but the result is just not the same. The A8 is more of a luxury / sport sedan, has a somewhat firmer ride, and its interior, IMO, is actually less impressive than the Phaeton's. The Phaeton interior is pure L-U-X-U-R-Y....equalled in looks IMO only by Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Maybach, and perhaps the Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas, although the Lexus LS430's interior beats all of them for workmanship and quality.

 

Yes, but you and I are not in that group ( at least for now ) We don't have 90K to spend on a car. There are others who do. I'm thinking of them, not myself...or us.

One can argue that the car has not sold well, and that's true. VW, though, IMO can increase Phaeton sales with the techniques I have already mentioned. We saw the same with the Acura NSX....almost zilch sales, and Acura didn't yank it out of the market. It kept it in production for almost 15 years in spite of slow sales.....and, if you can FINALLY believe the Acura marketers, are designing a new one, possibly with a V8 or V10.

 

In the other post about the Phaeton seemed rather flip and uncaring. What VW did with the Phaeton to me was huge, they made a car that no one would have ever expected... then made one with a 12 Cylinder in it! The interior is far superior to any in its field (besides Lexus but come on guys that's implied!) Take away the emblem on the grill and I think it looks far better the A8. A 2 year old 12 Cylinder car that can be had for as low as $50,000 with 4WD and a warranty? That's fantastic! Best of all its a car for the VW people who grew up and had money but wanted a big luxury that still had the VW image. Every brand has a following of people behind it, VW people got that chance to have the big luxury car and keep the VW the brand image. For those who claim the car has no presitge or luxury, at the risk of sounding like a cliche car commercial how do you define luxury? When you walk up to the Phaeton and SEE with your eyes the cars body lines, TOUCH the quality of the interior, SMELL the soft leather, and HEAR the sound of the W12 engine... is what lays before not luxury?

It doesn't matter that they didn't sell that many of them, the people who wanted the option got it and makes them happy, that's why we spend hours on the internet looking at all the little parts for our cars and checking in ever few hours to see if anything new develops. We do it cause it makes us happy.

To scoff in the face of Luxury makes us no better then the attitude of the 3 pronged star owners we try so hard to separate ourselves from.

 

I agree.

Imagine if Toyota decided to make an $75k car... Now that wouldn't fly very well. But if you make a $75k Lexus, then that is something else...

Let VW keep making their everyday cars, and leave the big guns to its higher classier sibs, like Audi.

 

Volkswagen to yank slow-selling Phaeton from U.S. market next summer
DIANA T. KURYLKO | Automotive News
WIM OUDE WEERNINK | Automotive News Europe
Posted Date: 11/14/05

Volkswagen AG is admitting defeat with the Phaeton. VW plans to pull the slow-selling luxury car from the U.S. market next summer.

The Phaeton is losing money in the United States. "It is not a viable business case anymore," says Hans-Gerd Bode, a VW spokesman at the company's global headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The decision to pull the plug was made by Wolfgang Bernhard, head of the VW brand worldwide, and Adrian Hallmark, the new executive vice president of Volkswagen of America Inc.

The executives decided Volkswagen will focus on being a volume player in the U.S. market instead of trying to move up-market, Bode says.

"Bernhard and Hallmark said, 'We are a volume producer, and let's go in this direction, beginning with the U.S. market, where we are losing a lot of money,' " Bode says.

Slumping sales

The Phaeton's U.S. sales tumbled to 686 in the first 10 months of 2005 from 1,433 in the year-ago period. That's a 52.1 percent drop.

VW prices the Phaeton at $68,655 for a V-8 model, including a $1,300 gas-guzzler charge. The 12-cylinder version starts at $100,255, including a $3,000 gas guzzler charge.

By contrast, the most expensive four-door VW Passat sedan starts at $32,515 for a 3.6-liter VR6 model.

VW plans to announce the Phaeton decision to dealers today, Nov. 14. Wolfsburg expects Phaeton sales to end in the U.S. market next July or August.

The company will not send the 2007 Phaeton here.

VW will continue to provide customer support to Phaeton owners, Bode says.

VW's U.S. market will focus on core vehicles, including the Passat, Jetta, Golf and Touareg, Bode says, along with new models such as the Eos convertible that is due early next year.

The company's U.S. dealers will get a car above the Passat as part of a product offensive that Bernhard has promised for 2008 and beyond.

Since VW launched the Phaeton in the U.S. market in 2003, the car has not approached its initial sales target of 5,000 a year. This year, the Phaeton does not appear to be on track to hit its lowered U.S. sales target of 1,000.

VWoA offered $10,000 in dealer cash last year on 2004 models.

Bode says it was probably a mistake for VW to launch the Touareg and the Phaeton together. Marketing wasn't sufficient to position both vehicles strategically, he says.

VWoA's marketing also has been inconsistent, Bode says: "In the last year, we didn't have a good marketing effort in the U.S. Today we do this, and tomorrow we do that."

Bode says VWoA's continued losses also affected the decision to yank the Phaeton. VW expected to turn around its fortunes in the United States this year with redesigned versions of the Jetta and Passat and a freshened New Beetle.

This month, though, Wolfsburg announced this year's losses at VWoA are expected to top last year's loss of $1.07 billion.

Chris Curran, a Volkswagen dealer in Stratford, Conn., says "it's no surprise" VW is dropping the Phaeton.

"As the volumes got smaller," says Curran, "they decided they didn't have enough funds to support stronger incentive programs."

Curran says the Phaeton represented too big a jump for traditional VW buyers to make. At the same time, he says, luxury buyers did not gravitate to the car.

Says Curran: "People in that high-price range are buying prestige and image, and want the logo to represent that."