08 January 2005

loving the phaeton

This car gets me all... ok I'll stop there. Seriously, the folks at VW just keep outdoing themselves in terms of design.

It has 4Motion, this all-wheel drive system that basically tracks the traction of each wheel separately and applies the ABS individually where needed. If one wheel is slipping, the system applies the brakes to that wheel and gives more torque to a wheel that has better traction. So the car handles great in all weather conditions. Even when you make a turn, power is automatically being shifted.

There are four zones of climate control, and it's all handled without vents blowing on you. The air is totally filtered too.

They combined TWO VR6 engines for this thing. (VW fans know that just one VR6 is pretty damned exciting.) And of course it comes with a Tiptronic transmission. Just looking at the engine makes me all tingly inside.

Massage seats. Automatic tire pressure sensors. Parking sensors (as in the car will tell you how far away you are from an object). 12-speaker sound system that you can set to different modes, if you're on the highway or street driving, etc. The windshield wipers sense how fast they need to be on.

Now, this car just gets a bad rap all around. Everyone agrees it's a fantastic machine, they just know it doesn't work in the market. VW has sold practically none. It's very sad, because people are so attached to the names of Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, that they just won't pay this much for a VW. Those are all great cars, but this one is just wicked. And they think that it was ego on the part of VW, they're just over there stroking themselves, but really they've always been the ones most true to what they do, and they're damned dedicated to good design. So if you want to keep moving onward and upward, this is what you do. It makes sense to me. But they'll probably stop making it in another four years.