Germany's prestigious Auto, Motor & Sport magazine reported that the Phaeton had the highest scores in the history of its crash-testing program. The car has a very stiff chassis built from tailored blanks, a more expensive steel that is cast specifically to put maximum strength where it is needed rather than having uniform thickness throughout.
The Phaeton looks good, thanks to its body being painted twice, with a hand sanding in between. To protect that paint during the assembly process, the Phaeton assembly plant in Dresden, which is located next to a large city park, is equipped with special filters to keep pollen out of the building.
To give you an idea of the degree of care Volkswagen exercises in building the Phaeton, the plant has Canadian maple wood floors over most of its surface, but in the areas where the tires might touch the floorboard, darker smoked oak is used.
Chrome bars that mark the top corners of the front fascia underscore the car's status and its wide stance. A similar chrome bar runs back through the doors and around the top of the rear bumper.
Xenon headlamps are standard. Fenders are flared around large, 18-inch wheels and tires, and the doors are long, hinting at the room inside the passenger compartment.
Strong, substantial C pillars that flow into a short rear deck enhance the Phaeton's stance. Though the rear deck appears short, there's a lot of depth in the trunk space between those C pillars, Volkswagen says room enough for four sets of golf clubs.
Two large tail lamps are located on each side of the rear view, and each set appears to be enclosed in a single large element. But one light is set into the rear quarterpanel and the other into the rear deck lid, with the housing designed to visually unite them.
The car's proportions remind us more of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class than either a Passat or Audi, though the Phaeton's lines are rounded and smooth rather than angular. It's clear that this car was designed in the Volkswagen styling studio even though the word "Volkswagen" does not appear on the car. Instead it has the VW emblem on its nose and tail, with "PHAETON" in small letters just below the rear corporate symbol. The W12 is distinguished by "W12" and "6.0" badges, as well as four exhaust tips instead of two. Next Page