Goodbye, VW Phaeton – you were always too good to be a Volkswagen

The Volkswagen Phaeton is no longer on sale in the UK as the slow-selling luxury VW is finally retired as its engines aren’t Euro6 compliant.

The Volkswagen Phaeton was conceived as the ultimate VW; a car that would show ‘premium’ German car makers how it should be done. And it was, and is, a remarkable car.

VW’s decision to end the Phaeton in the UK may well have been made easier by the departure of Ferdinand Peich, VW’s dominant Chairman and whose pet project the Phaeton was. But despite its huge technical prowess, a VW that looked like an inflated Passat was never going to be able to stand toe to toe with the mighty Mercedes S Class, even if Piech believed the Phaeton was the better car.

Piech’s obsessive brief for the Phaeton included the demand that it must be able to drive all day at 186mph in temperatures of 50 C and still keep the cabin at 22C, and the final car was, in many ways, a Bentley Continental in VW clothes with 4WD, air suspension and even the option of the mighty W12 engine.

We’ve spent years telling anyone looking for a ‘cheap’ luxury car to grab a Phaeton, with the diesel-engined versions perfect chauffeur fodder – even with lashings of fake, plastic-looking German wood – and that advice still stands.

Although the W12 version hasn’t been available in the UK for some, the SWB and LWB 3.0 litre V6 TDIs have been until now, and with a list price in the high £50ks they were heading in to entry-level S Class territory.

But put your search goggles on and you can pick up a modest mileage two-year old car for not much more than £20k, and that’s with a warranty and great build quality to boot.

It’s a sad farewell to a car that was just too good to succeed, but VW are planning a comeback for the Phaeton in 2017, although whether it will represent the same technological tour de force as the current, Phaeton we wouldn’t like to say.