Volkswagen Phaeton W12

Volkswagen Phaeton W12

The Volkswagen Phaeton was the passion project of Ferdinand Piëch, VW's chairman, who demanded that his engineers build a Volkswagen capable of cruising at 300 km/h all day in 50°C exterior heat while maintaining an interior temperature of 22°C. This extraordinary engineering brief resulted in what may be the most over-engineered car ever produced for its market segment. The range-topping W12 model featured VW's unique W-configuration 12-cylinder engine — essentially two narrow-angle VR6 engines joined at 72 degrees — producing 450 horsepower and driving all four wheels through a standard Torsen-based 4MOTION system. The Phaeton was assembled by hand in VW's spectacular Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent Factory) in Dresden, a glass-walled architectural masterpiece where customers could watch their cars being built. The interior rivaled anything from Bentley (which shared the same D1 platform), with double-insulated glass, 11 electric motors just for the climate control system, and materials of exceptional quality. Despite these extraordinary qualities, the Phaeton was a commercial failure in most markets because buyers simply couldn't reconcile the VW badge with a six-figure price tag. Today, depreciated Phaetons offer astonishing value — and correspondingly terrifying maintenance costs.