I always thought it was nice, but the car is obviously not selling in th U.S,so I have one question...........................WHY??

 

Because they are still selling it in Europe. It will be discontinued in the US if not already.

 

I agree, why keep selling them here in the U.S. Maybe to remind themselves how much of a failure the Phaeton is selling here. At one point VW did sell more Phaetons than the Infiniti Q45...

 

The facelift is ugly. Are they trying to copy MB with the lower front fascia? I like the current one better.

 

they're selling quite well in asia

 

already discontinued in the US

 

ahh, I knew the front end reminded me of something. Not a blatant copy IMO, but there is a similarity with the lower fascia.

 

I never paid enough attention to the Phaeton to notice much difference , I always know it has a nice interior though I sat in it once.

 

Simple. Two things that I have mentioned and complained about over and over again here on CAR CHAT......image and stereotypes. They can.......and sometimes do.....ruin perfectly good cars.

In the American public's mind, VW is not SUPPOSED to build luxury cars or expensive sport sedans.....so the public has simply turned its nose up at this superb car and just ignored the fact that it is a whale of a bargain compared to its BMW and Mercedes competition ( though, admittedly, it is more money than I would put into a new car ) . The 12-cylinder version, especially, is a bargain......while $90,000 is far from cheap, it is chump change compared to the $120,000-$150,000 that fully loaded BMW 760iL's and Mercedes S600 V-12's run. Yes, you have the questionable VW electronics and unreliability, but to an extent you have that nowadays with almost ANY German-designed car, bargain or not.

But no......VW's IMAGE won't let them sell something like this here....so the public is just losing out. Fortunately the similiar, all-aluminum Audi A8 and S8 will carry on here in its place....but the A8, of course, costs more, and is not as much of a pure luxury car...it is more of a sports sedan.

 

The new Phaeton is ugly. If VW dealers had better service they could have sold a bunch more.

 

how is the reliability on this sucker? i heard the depreciation value for the car is really bad so picking up to use for a 5+ year beater mite be worth it.

 

he didnt mention Porsche, he mentioned VW, there is a difference.

BMW owns Rolls Royce but you don't see RR having electrical issues (often).

 

Porsches are very low volume cars...and they are not typical of German designs in many areas.
Consumer Reports, the best reliability source available, does not dave much data on them because of low sales. The Phaeton, of course, is also a low-volume car, but is similiar in many ways to other VW's and Audis that DO have poor reliability. I still have a high opinion of it, though, as a bargain luxury car.

 

It doesn't sell in the US because if you are going to spend that much money on a ride, why would you buy a VW. I would put it in one of the other German automakers.

CV

 

It is just a supersized Passat, they would not even sell these things in Mexico where VW is king. I remember a few friends who wanted to see it went to the VW in my neighborhood and the VW dude told them to walk next door to the Audi dealer if they wanted to see the A8.