My uncle had an early Phaeton V10 TDI when they were new. One day he dropped his daughter off at the airport and she closed the boot manually before he could prevent her from doing that, it had to be closed automatically with the button. He had to call Volkswagen assistance to reset the computer, because the car thought the boot was still open and refused to open it.

A friend had one of these in Belgium when they first came out, we where military and you'd get offered bizarre tax free deals on high end cars. He used one as a diplomatic car and fell in love with it. He went to the tax free dealer and said see how much they are...he paid (I believe) an astonishing £27,000 for a car that retailed at over £80k with the options on it. It was a glorious car, that V12 engine was sublime (tax free fuel meant big cars where not an issue, a 200 litre fuel card was about €30). He sold it after a year to Park Lane London for just over £50k. It was at its best on the Autobahn on long journeys, I took it to Prague and back once...easiest long drive I've ever had.

The main issue with the Phaeton is that to the untrained eye, it just looks like a jumped up Passat.

I work as a Chauffeur in Munich and we had Phaeton's and they were the best car for the job at the time, better even than our A8's and S-classes. It was a shame for us when they dropped them. There is in effect a Phaeton 2 but it's a China only model. The climate control is still the best I've ever come across and better than a current S-class.

I've had several cars for the last 20 years including big SUVs (ML, Cayenne, X5) about 7 BMWs (5 series, 6 series), I've driven most of the common luxury cars from most manufacturers. I was not sure about owning a big saloon though, I've driven the S class, 7 series, A8, Panamera, all having ups and downs for my taste. It all depends of what you expect from the car to offer. If you want sportiness, Panamera is the best! To be honest, I think S class is the best in offering ride quality and comfort, but the car that can offer similar feeling as the Merc, is the Phaeton. I've just bought one with 50k miles on the clock, and it feels and smells like a brand new car, even after 10 years. The ride quality and the comfort are out of this world, but hey, It has Bentley's suspension so it makes sense! I was able to "swallow" the VW badge because this car is all about the inside..It feels like a big boat floating on the sea. You can understand why Piech built a factory just for this car, materials and details are premium. I would not compare this car to A8 and 7 series that feel cheaper, it stays on the same level as Bentley and S class, a true high-end vehicle, the only problem is the badge, but this badge owns Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini so...

Back in the early 2010s I was working a lot with a firm in Hannover. Whenever I flew out to see them, they would send either an S class or a Phaeton to pick me up from the airport. I always hoped it would be the Phaeton - good as the S class was, the ride and isolation you felt being taken around in the Phaeton was on another level. 200kph on the autobahn felt like nothing, you could converse in normal speech as the world passed by like you were watching a film on fast forward. A truly great car, thanks Matt for the review .

Funny thing I saw, one of these where the owner had rearranged the letters on the back to say phat one

I didn't realize the Phaeton had stayed in production so long. But it seems to be a very solid, well built car. Indeed the badge let it down and probably the fact that when it was introduced people weren't buying "big" cars from volume manufacturers anymore.

The D1 Platform does not underpin the A8, and it does not underpin the Panemera (that platform predates VWs ownership of Porsche). It was designed exclusively for the Phaeton; the Bentley was a late edition to help spread the (tremendous) cost.

I didn’t get these at all when they launched - like many others I thought it was just a jumped up Passat - but when you delve into the engineering, you start to see what a tour de force these things are. Like the Lexus LS400, I honestly feel that the Phaeton moved the luxury car game on considerably.

Lest we forget the Dutton Phaeton. A Cortina/Escort based (or whatever you like) fibre glass estate kit car! 🙂

I have had one for the last 10 years and 145k miles quite a journey! wonderful when working but EGR and DPF issues were a nightmare going into limp mode every 200 miles. All air suspension has been replaced and its on its fourth compressor. Main dealers don't want to know so it is a case of finding a brave garage. Far too complicated for its own good🙄

Impressive car! I remember seeing the glass factory during a tour in Dresden. They were very proud of that back then, around 2005

Not a VW fan but i love this car... To me, big luxury sedans are one of the best type of car of all PS The factory of this car was (and still is) a true masterpiece

I remember the first time i saw a Phaeton irl. At first glance, sideeye because i was navigating in another direction, i thought it was a B3 Passat, but then i noticed the size of it. Man the Phaetons are big! Anyways.. I've liked them from back when i watched Jeremy Clarkson tell us about it on Top Gear. ..and if i were in the market for such a luxury barge back then, it would have taken a lot to drag me away from a Phaeton. I thought the exact opposite of why most people didn't want it. That it's cool that it flies under the radar for most people, leaving me to enjoy my top tier car. Sadly we do hear "interesting" things about how expensive these cars are to keep running, if anything goes wrong...and apparently many people's Phaetons do go wrong. That part i'm less enthusiastic about.

I've been in my Aunty's friends one when new I was a teenager, I was impressed by the red ambient lighting, not much else I preferred my Dad's 96 XJ for ambience.

Antidote to the excellent Lloyd Vehicle Consulting channel. This one`s a diesel. 😁 Lovely looking car. I really like those retractable air vents. Very cool. I can see why this model exists but I wonder why VAG badged the Phaeton as a Volkswagen and not Audi? 🤔

Yeah, awesome car. It is just, nobody exists anymore, who can work on it. We have one specialty shop in Germany, and that is it. I brought my V10 model to three VW shops. None seem to have a clue what they were dealing with. And parts for it? Forget it. I had hoses and fittings hand made by a specialty shop, because you could not buy them anymore as a spare part. The car was in shops for months, the mechanics trying to get any parts from any source. I ended up doing a lot of the work myself. The front rotors , $ 1000. And before you buy one, sit in it, because you really can't be too tall as a driver. Just try it out. Especially the W12 and V10 Phaeton are insanely engineered vehicles. As such, you must realize that for tiny engine work, you might have to remove the entire engine. So is it worth it? As a car enthusiast, absolutely. Just be prepared. These are vehicles, the manufacturer really wants to forget. If you want one for the long run, buy three instead, have some skills and a place to wrench. It is worth it because it's a unique piece of automotive history and will only go up in value, like a Porsche GT or something like that. It might still take 25 years before it happens, but it will. At that point, people at car meetings will show up with their Bentleys, Koenigsegg, even their Veyrons. And you pull up in your VW Phaeton V10 and will see everyone's jaw drop. Because they will know the history of this car and they will also want to know, how in the world is this vehicle still running. Who is this crazy person?

The logo in the clock won't be a Bentley logo, it'll be a Breitling logo, which is a very similar pair of stylised wings with a B in the middle (albeit superimposed over a ship's anchor).

I remember being in the back of one a couple of times years ago. My dad's mate used to own a lwb top spec v10 tdi one from 2005 I think but what made it special is that it was one of the 4 seater ones with the centre console in the rear and massage seats. He even used the car for towing a car trailer haha. I do have a soft spot for them, but I would hate to own one if it goes wrong.

My 2009 Audi A8 3.0 TDi has that V6 TDi with 229 bhp and it is a fine engine. It has an avalanche of torque and averages 34 mpg or up to 42 mpg at motorway speed. The Phaeton on the other hand seems to be like an A8 Ghia or Vanden Plas. A real class act. Good old Ferdinand really did beat BMW and Mercedes and he did it with a big Volkswagen too.

This is the most opulent Volkswagen I’ve ever seen!!. I’ve never had an experience of a Phaeton, apart from seeing one on the road. Thank you Matt, for expanding my knowledge and understanding of this beautiful car, not forgetting it’s equally unusual name❤.

When these were released with the Touareg, there were only 2 vw dealers in Scotland that could supply/service them, they said because of ramp weight restrictions at the time. My parents looked at Touaregs back in 2005 but our local dealer couldn’t supply or service so they went for an XC90 instead

First time I ever saw the vents deploy - gorgeous action on them.

Best Phaeton review on KZfaq 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

Original development was driven primarily by internal VW-Audi rivalry. The VW boss could not accept that there was an Audi-branded car (A8) without at least a VW comparator. Then he wanted it to be better than the Audi, so the engines had to be bigger (hence the 5-litre diesel and 6-litre petrol options), the comfort superior (because it was also going to underpin Bentleys) and every innovation had to be implemented on this ahead of any other model. The only aspect that they didn't emulate was the Audi aluminium architecture, hence it was heavier (but also less expensive to repair). I don't know if this choice was forced by budgetary constraints or because a steel structure would enhance refinement (this being pitched against D-B rather than BMW). Then they couldn't get a gearbox that could handle V10 TDI (development cars had 1000Nm torque and destroyed gearboxes within 500 miles), so they eventually had to detune the engine instead. While they were struggling with this problem, they took the opportunity to nitpick over modules from from suppliers, causing ever more aggravation (I worked for one module supplier) because development costs continued rising and the launch date was always being delayed. The logic of that engine was unfathomable - diesels are supposed to be an economy option, but this was only good for about 13mpg, so I heard. The W12 was the ultimate halo car - with the requirement to be able to run at 186mph whilst maintaining a perfect interior climate, for instance. I understand that they really could achieve that speed and the Bentley sisters were good for 195-200mph with turbocharging. When it was launched, it had Bentley sisters (to which my employer supplied identical modules), but Bentley were not permitted to request any module design changes unless those changes were also appropriate to the Phaeton. Once it became clear that the Bentleys were outselling the Phaeton by about 10 to 1, VW had to accept that Bentley would take the lead. Ignore the badge - it was the best luxury car you could get at the time when it was launched. The only proviso was that it may have been half the price of a Bentley sister, but it would cost every bit as much to own as a Bentley.

I loved the Phaeton. It always felt like it, the C6, and S80 were never given a true chance as their badges never meant "high end luxury". I've had the joy of driving all three, and would gladly take a Phaeton or the monstrous 4.4 litre S80 over any of the German equivalents.

Cars like this Will never be Made again 😢

Owned a 2006 V10 5.0litre lwb 4 seater as a brief folly, just to appreciate the exquisite over engineering.

Great video Matt. What a beautiful car! I love those cup holders. I had the doors blown off me on the M25 by one of the w12s a few years ago - I remember looking to see what it was… a VW pha… and it had gone 😎

Excellent review Matt, love these. It's shocking how similar this is on the inside to my mate's 2012 MK2 Škoda Superb Laurin and Klement, which has pretty much all the kit as this has, but has memory seats and keyless Ignition.

VW had always seemed to be a little more upmarket than the mainstream competition when I was growing up, like the 2000s Jetta and Passat; sort of like where Mazda is positioning themselves now. So it wasn't completely bonkers for me to see the Phaeton.

I saw a Phaeton in the wilds of Bemidji, Minn. USA, a little rusty but it was a Phaeton. Quality should be welcomed regardless of the badge. My fear is the technicians that can fix it has to be specially trained. Very complicated and expensive. Still, I'll take 4 so I would not have turn one around. :) m

A proper Uber barge when Uber meant something else ! 👍🤣

Imagine the same badge snobbery in 1947 when buying a new expensive Italian sports car:' That red car with a prancing horse logo? No, thanks! The car is fine, in fact it is excellent. But it has the wrong badge!'

I think the biggest let down would be spending all that money and having to explain to everyone that it’s not a Passat! 😂 Great work as always and very entertaining. Cheers Pat 🇦🇺

Great video. Great car. A time when the word "ordinary" was a synonym for "excessive"; and engineered accordingly. The boot-lid hinges for example. My jaw dropped many centimetres when I first saw those on Top Gear. I'd like to think the whole car is full of such instances.

I would very much like a saloon with Bentley type levels of luxury but I don’t want anything ostentatious or flash like a Bentley so this lovely interior in something that looks like a boring old Passat appeals to me enormously.

An upgrade in audio and video equipment would make this one of the best car review channels on yt.

A excellent review as always Matt, not a huge VW fan but nice to learn about this car, if i had to bave the diesel it would have to the V10 diesel if its the same engine thats in the Toureg coupled with a nice aftermarket exhaust system.

Sad that VW couldn't get the USA market for this model, but I think telling people you drive a $100K Volkswagen.. people would laugh at you. But it was a great VW, some faults, but as a bases for the Bentley, it had to be good. Great video!

I have driven the 3.2 petrol Phaeton and also an earlyTouareg V10 5L. That engine in the Phaeton must be an awesome combination! The torque is unreal!

Geez, what hasn’t this car got? That’s impressive. First time I saw one of these I had to look twice as I thought it was a Passat. If you were in the market for something in this class would you buy a VW? As you point out. We see a few of these in Australia. This will probably be a luxury car bargain.

There is a vlogger on KZfaq (Swiss Car Guy) who worked out what they spent maintaining and repairing a W12 Phaeton saloon. They spent 22,000 Swiss Francs buying the car but then spent 28,000 Swiss Francs on maintenance and repairs over 4 years before selling the car for 9,000 Swiss Francs. To put that into context, the original retail price was 220,000 Swiss Francs and they bought the car when it was five years old and sold it at nine years old. Now they drive a Lexus LS600h for some reason... 🤔🤨

I do love the interior & even the exterior, I did look at those but was put off by the reliability stats. Ended up buying a C219 CLS Mercedes.

Great cars. If only they’d looked a bit different from a Passat they may have sold better. There’s still a W12 one local to me, maybe the only one left?

Great video - a detailed and fair review. Although I am biased as an owner haha

I have a 2011 LWB 3.0tdi.

We should really stop sneering at the Austin 3 litre when manufacturers are/were making the same choices fifty odd years later.

Always loved the Pheaton. Even when it was launched back in 2003 them boot aluminium struts look wonderful.

Great Matt just bought one month ago really happy with car I find it great family car with two boys they love car and comfortable seats in back big thumbs up for channel 🤗

Ok, the car is cool. But that sales kit is just another level. Have we lost this attention to detail now, is it all co2 and how green a car can be? Bring back the fun I say.

Great review, thank you! It's a fascinating car.

A bit like 2000s Fiat 130 saloon, the phaeton: as many have already mentioned an expensive luxury saloon that looked too strikingly like a bigger version of one their (far) cheaper saloons. I'm not sure about the brand snobbery issue, though: also in 2002 Volkswagen released the expensive-for-them touareg and that was a success. May of course have had something to do with the early premium-SUV-factor of it. Nice review, this, seeing that interior makes me understand the phaeton a little better; however, I still wouldn't have a clue why I would want one, especially with Bentley-like maintenance and repair costs (not coincidentally). Jack form Nr 27 recently did a comparison between a phaeton and a Bentley continental.

I'd have loved Ford to do this with Granada type reboot

My best mates neighbour has one of these ( different model though ). Such a luxurious drive.

The Volkswagen Touareg was released at the same time and the same price range but sold well and is still in VWs range now. So I don't think it was badge snobbery that did for the Phaeton but the move away from mainstream saloons to SUVs, and bigger the better SUVs

Some of the parts you described as chrome, aren't chrome. The stalk tios won't be machined chromium, it's very difficult to machine with precision. More likely to be aluminium or steel

I like them. Slick looking car. I did actually see one recently, I bet it's a nice motorway muncher...

The problem (one of them) with the Phaeton is that it was completely incongruous with the brand values of VW or "people's car". The board failed to stop one man's personal crusade and the result was a Passat on steroids. If you worked in London around those years you would have been unlikely to see one of these as an executive chauffeur vehicle in place of an S Class Mercedes.

The main problem was that no one could tell the difference, from the outside, between the Phaeton and the Passat

Those boot hinges though.. 😍

There are two basic types of motorist today, the ones who use a vehicle to take the road from A to B, and the ones who see status as a lifestyle. Economics tend to determine that for most. I am definitely in the A to B crowd

Have one for almost 13 years. Love it!

Volkswagen's first and only luxury car. It's good intentions meant well but its high price and low sales meant it was a huge flop.

8:29 honk! honk!

I've seen one of those 8 UK models on a regular basis, the owner was on the same commute at the same times. Wafting along...

Every time I see one of these it’s always a bit disappointing that it’s a diesel - regardless, it’s a smashing motor and a great review cheers pal

What a remarkable car, early examples of which can be found on Autotrader for less than £3,000 (in mid 2023) with just 100k on the clock or less !! Astonishing.

this is a real thing of beauty, the real luxury, not making everyone notice it but being actually the very best linusine of the entire vw brand of the time! it's pretty much a German answer to toyota century, too bad we are dumbasses and can't appricieante a car for what it is unless it has a premium brand even if that premium brand is kinda shitty like audi....

if you change the badge to Passat. No thieves will bother you 😂

Parts cost a fortune.😂😮

Interesting to watch and listen to. Although, to be honest, if I could afford luxury level driving, I'd prefer a Bentley. Maybe it's the exterior, but it just looks like a Passat trying to be an S class or a Rolls to me. For what (I presume) you'd have to pay for a good one, I'd rather have the S class or Bentley, personally.

Nice car! Let me know if you like to compare it to a 2015 A8 LWB

I can see this becoming a future classic imo.

Ah yes, the Phaeton. Meant to be leased and promptly disposed of at its end lol 😂

Could you review the Arteon?

What a beautiful car. They only needed to come up with a luxurious sounding brand name. After all, Lexus drivers do not want to be reminded that they are driving a Toyota.

I have Michelin Cross Climate tyres on my VW Fox, road noise is ALL you can hear!

Obviously they wouldn't mount a Bentley-badged analogue clock. Talk to the owner, he/she probably swapped in a clock that came from a Continental GT. Another popular swap is the bonnet pull lever. Phaetons were fitted w/ plastic; Bentley have the exact moulded shape but solid aluminium. Nice. 🙂

"...where the edges are." The edges are in the hedges. Salvage Rebuilds UK had one (I think? trouble with the insanely over-engineered trunk linkage). Maybe that was a Bentley. Either way: nightmare.

Only 17 on auto trader and only 1 above 10k asking price, bargain?

Thanks for that.

One of my most favourite Vw car's. Maybe one day I will own one 😂.

The Phaeton is a legend!

I drove the Phaeton almost on a daily basis when I wrote my thesis at VW, at the department that calibrated the W-engines. It took me a while to fully appreciate it, at first the tautness of the suspension is surprising, it seems anything but soft, and doesn't lean the least bit. Drive it longer and the absence of bumps becomes apparent. It's supremely comfortable yet feeling taut, almost sporty at the same time. The W12 engine makes an unremarkable, humming noise. Despite that it's quite a high revving engine (max power at 6000) the 5-speed box keeps rpm's low. It is not fun to drive, but it is like a perfect butler, it does not draw any attention, does not beg to be driven a certain way, but it is probably the ideal long distance cruiser. Drive the Passat W8 and it feels like it was built by a different company, in terms of driving the similarities are zero. It is not the loss many people think, as it is basically a Bentley Continental GT underneath except that the Bentley has the turbocharged version of the W12 engine. VW's site was full of Bentleys at that time. BTW even the 420ps W12 would top 300km/hr when not limited, I heard this several times from different persons. IMHO a very impressive car!

No table for back seat laptop?

More likely that the clock has a VW logo inside Breitling wings rather than inside Bentley wings

Very luxurious

Really an image problem I guess... . And looking at the electric window switches I can be proud of having Phaeton parts in my Skoda Fabia II... or vice versa... 😂😂😂

Beautiful car and another good video 🚘🚙🚗⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏

A year ago Autogefühl brought out a video of the VW Phaeton D2.

Volkswagen should have gone with some other brand name to market this car. Maybe even invent a new brand like Toyota did with Lexus. And the most disappointing thing for the owner was that this car just looked like a super big Passat.

Honestly if i could find a very late petrol model i would buy them

It id be nasty to call it a big passat...🙂 Hell of a car to buy second hand as it would deprecate like a rock🤗👍🇮🇪

you forgot to show the over-engineered boot struts🤔

You forgot it has a dehumidifier built in and the boot lock disappears into the tailgate when open

If you look at the part numbers on modules etc... you will find they are the same as used in Bentley cars.... this was in effect a poor man's Bentley....

Maybe should have brought the old Auto Union Horch brand name out of retirement and called it one of those. Be interesting to compare to its Bentley sister.

Still a very impressive Motor car, plenty of presence