Funeral of first class

Dresden, 18 March 2016

Milestone or flop? To the VW Phaeton, divergent tastes. Indisputably, the luxury sedan was a technical engineering excellence, financially he has not paid off for the company. Which shows already the number of the last Phaeton, now walked into the transparent factory in Dresden by the band: the staff assembled themselves to a car with the license plate 84235. converted to the 14 years of production makes the Phaeton that a cut of around 6,000 vehicles per year.

Luxury without Chancellor bonus

The last Phaeton is a cart with a 4.2-liter V8, 335 HP and all-wheel drive. In 2002 the thickest VW was launched with much pomp: arrived at the opening of the "transparent factory" in Dresden, where ducks Phaeton was built, the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. And with a new State limousine in the luggage down. But also this Adelung helped little car. Not only that misplaced the VW logo in the luxury class, the design had been conservative. Quite a few blasphemed on a too large troubled Passat. VW was probably hoping for customers who appreciate the discreet appearance. But rather, in the segment of the Phaeton, the opposite is needed.

The story continues in China

This, the Phaeton and sophisticated inner values could shine as draught-free ventilation or inlaid into the wood. Another homemade problem was the homemade competition: In 2002, the Audi A8 was already established, parallel, the brand came Bentley to Volkswagen. Their models of the 2000s but used the technique of the Phaeton and were built even in Dresden, Germany. Only in China, where VW early has developed a large market share, the Phaeton found his friends. They kept him alive, in 2010, there were the most comprehensive model of care. The idea of the Phaeton will live on in the Middle Kingdom: the 5.05-meter-long Phideon not only similar sounds, visually, there's a recognition factor. And in Europe? So far, the speech was by an electric Phaeton from 2018. But currently the priorities change in Wolfsburg quickly.

No layoffs in Dresden

In Dresden itself, incidentally, 100 staff are employed on, another 400 employees are transferred to other Group sites. The Phaeton factory will still be used for delivery purposes, VW shows at the same time new ideas concerning the topics of electric mobility and digitization in the future interested visitors. (rh)

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