After two decades, the most underrated car in the world is ready to make a comeback. Except, it's not. I don't know why but Volkswagen decided to torture us by releasing never-seen-before pictures of the second-gen VW Phaeton that never happened.
Exactly twenty years ago, in 2002, Volkswagen unveiled an unexpected luxury sedan built on the underpinnings of the Bentley Continental GT. It was called the Phaeton, and absolutely no one bought one.
The badge was probably the main reason why it flopped commercially. It was solid and well built but at the end of the day, it looked like an Audi A8, and it cost like an Audi A8. Buyers just didn’t feel comfortable spending 60 or 70 grand on a VW.
It was available with several wonderful engines, including a Including a massive 6.0 L W12 and a 5.0 L diesel V10.
There’s a silver lining: it depreciated like a box of chocolates in the desert sun and that means you can still buy one for peanuts. I believe the project for the D2 Phaeton, the 2nd gen, didn't get the green light because of that.
It was more or less the same size as the previous model, 5060 cm x 1900 cm x 1450 cm. And they were going to give it more or less the same engine options, including the W12 and the V10.
It's never gonna happen, though. I mean they'll never build a new Phaeton. And if they did, it'd be yet another electric washing machine. Pity.
I've crossposted this article on Flabbergasted.
