The last Volkswagen Phaeton rolls out of the factory transparent: goodbye to 14 years of history

The Phaeton has been, for more than a decade, the greatest exponent of luxury and opulence within the Volkswagen.

Now the time has come to say goodbye, as the last Phaeton unit was built this week, bringing to a close a chapter with more shadows than lights.

The VW Phaeton was born at the end of 2002, with the clear aim of carving out a niche in the luxury saloon segment, thereby improving the premium image of the Volkswagen brand, which until then had no model in this category. To achieve this, the German manufacturer went all out, investing millions that, unfortunately, it never managed to recover.

The Phaeton marked the start of an era for Volkswagen, a period of prosperity in which investments, however grandiose they might seem, always appeared justified. The Phaeton is possibly the clearest example of this. As proof, some facts: a transparent glass factory was built in the German city of Dresden for the production of this model. It was also the first model from the brand to feature a V10 diesel engine and, to this day, it is -or was- the Volkswagen with the longest wheelbase in the manufacturer’s history. It shared much of its components with the first generation of the Bentley Continental GT.

The Phaeton never met its sales targets despite being a true engineering marvel

To make this model attractive, one of the pillars on which its design and subsequent manufacture were based was solidity and robustness. According to the demands of the then chairman of the Volkswagen Group, Ferdinand Piëch, the Phaeton had to be capable of running uninterrupted for a full day at 300 km/h with an outside temperature of 50ºC, while maintaining an interior temperature of 22ºC.

Despite receiving an update in 2010, the Phaeton never managed to meet sales expectations, held back by a design perhaps too sober and too similar to other brand models such as the Passat, a relatively high price for a VW, or competition from models such as its cousin the Audi A8 or the well-known Mercedes S-Class.

Today is the moment to bid farewell to this model which, for the time being, and due among other causes to the diesel scandal within the VW Group, will have no direct successor, at least until 2020, when the launch of a new, fully electric Phaeton is planned.

The last unit built is a 4.2 V8 4MOTION with 340 CV, destined for the Chinese market. The glass factory will now be converted into a sort of museum, where anyone will be able to learn in depth about the brand’s latest trends in ecological mobility. The fate of the 400 employees who until now worked at this plant is not very bright, as only 25% will be able to keep their jobs at the factory. The other 300 will have to be relocated to other brand factories.

Source | Volkswagen