Test drive Volkswagen Phaeton 2002 - 2009 sedan
A dozen for happiness
It so happened that it was the figure of twelve that opens the car with a pass to the representative class, but Volkswagen considered that it was not enough to have so many cylinders, and came up with Phaeton Long. Agree that it is very difficult to convince our spoiled person of the incredible steepness of the Volkswagen brand. Therefore, the leadership of the VW concern came up with an original move, providing reporters with complete freedom during the test of a long phaeton - there was no tough route imposed by the organizers. Here is a car for you, and here is the name of the hotel, where it is desirable (it is preferably, and not necessarily) to be in the evening. A specific route - on the conscience of the navigation system and at the discretion of the crew. As a result, in four days we drove along the roads of Germany more than two thousand kilometers. They examined the masterpieces of the Dresden Gallery, bowed to the monument to a pair of Goethe-Shiller in Weimar, visited the night casino in Berlin and the capital of Volkswagen Autostadt in Wolfsburg. In short, we joined the lifestyle, the close owner of the VW Phaeton Long.
People's path. Of course, anyone would probably repeat this route on a less pathos car. Perhaps he would be tired, but repeated: Eka Nevidal - 500 km per day. And we are not only not tired on a long chapet, but enjoyed it. Most of the route was on autobahns. With a V8 engine with a capacity of 335 hp The car easily moves at a cruising speed of 180--200 km/h, without forcing the driver to be particularly strained. Because managing a limousine with a length of more than five meters and weighing two and a half tons (two passengers plus baggage) is not just easy, but very easy. It becomes a little unpleasant only at a speed close to maximum-somewhere after 210-220 km/h. Phaeton begins to noticeably break in small turns. In this situation, the ruts broken on the roads of former East Germany were especially annoyed in such a situation. The system for adjusting the stiffness of shock absorbers did not help - the proper stability was not observed even in the very clamped sports regime.
But in full we enjoyed the opportunity to intervene in the operation of automatic transmission. Technically manual control was solved in the Ferrari style - two petals are hidden behind the steering wheel: the right switchs the gears up, the left - down. It is not necessary to transfer automatic transmission into a sports or manual mode - the petals themselves intercept management, just confidently press one of them. The solution is not indisputable, because Phaeton Long is not a sports car, but a representative car. But if you have to move to long distances and the driver is a professional, then the system will save a lot of time and nerves. For example, in situations where on wet asphalt I want to slow down the acceleration with an engine or vice versa, a sharp jump bypass the impudent driver-fighter. 
Folk games. The passenger, if he is in the front seat, will also find something to brighten up road boredom. Resting from the shift, I entertained myself that I studied the buttons on the front panel and in the tunnel between the driver and the passenger. There are a lot of them, to put it mildly. However, the control algorithm of all auxiliary functions is understood literally from a half thousand: it is quite easy to figure out even without multi -volume instructions. All information is broadcast on the central display, and anyone who is familiar with the Windows 95 antique system can communicate with the phaeton computer. The control of all electronics is organized by an affordable principle: one function is one button. The buttons are marked with iconograms or quite international abbreviations such as Radio, TEMP or NAV. The system is understandable not only to polyglots, but also to any driver, at least a little familiar with the Latin alphabet. Here, for example, a lever depicting a shock absorber. Click, and an image of a machine with a diagram appears on the display. At one end of the diagram it is written Comfort, on the other - Sport. Further, the rotation of the levers is adjusted by the rotation of the lever. Automation is capable of adjusting the road clearance: in the city the body can be lifted by 25 mm, and lower on the highway. In addition, the car automatically squats 15 mm from a neutral position when 140 km/h reaches. 
And you can also display on the display a list of all known radio stations, the names of the discs loaded to the CD changer, or use navigation with the enormous database on Germany-it contains not only streets with houses, but also restaurants, hospitals, hotels, gas stations ... And you can connect a system of alerts about traffic jams working through a mobile communications system (there are two built -in phones in the car), then navigation will automatically choose a faster route. Climate installation is a separate story. Through the display, you can configure the microclimate around each of the four sites of Phaeton. And when the temperature reaches the given, then the automation will hide the deflectors of the air conditioner under the red tree panel.
Folk happiness. Space is a strange thing. If you put it on a line of 12 cm, then this is not enough. If you lengthen a 120 mm standard Phaeton body, then this is a lot. There are enough of them to fall apart in your own seat and really stretch out the legs strained about the parquet of the Dresden gallery. True, similar comfort will cost about $ 13 thousand.-two rear seats with a subsidiary division are considered an option. In standard configuration, a three-seat sofa is still more familiar to the people.
The only disappointment can be considered the lack of electronic entertainment in our car. The massive plastic console, located in front of the eyes of the rear passengers, suggested at least the idea of \u200b\u200ba TV, brightening the boredom of a long journey. But no, the unit turned out to be just a huge control panel of a separate climate installation. So the most suitable lesson for the rear passenger is to isolate from the outside world with curtains on all windows and plunge into a blissful nap - there is more individual space from the back than in the first -class salon in the plane. Folk show. Phaeton Long does not belong to those cars that simply buy. It is chosen carefully and leisurely, like dinner in an expensive restaurant. The list of possible options with small print takes 28 pages, and you forget about what was in the beginning by the middle of the book. Therefore, at a glass manufactory, a factory, where they collect and partly sell phaetons, developed a special computer program that helps the people decide on their choice. This is not even a program, but a whole computer terminal, disguised as a regular table connected to a plasma panel.
Nearby in glass racks, rude vehicles of a car painted in real colors offered to customers are composed. It is enough to put the layout on the table, and a photograph of a car of exactly this color will appear on the display. The next step on the table is a bar of a tree, covered with leather - the car seats are painted in a similar color, and the second image appears - the car interior itself. Wood and metallized inserts are selected in a similar way. Due to the fact that an electronic chip is hidden inside each doll, and a reader is located under the surface of the table, the choice of a new car turns into an electronic show. Text and photo Nikolay Kachurin
Volkswagen Phaeton Long
Gasoline engine V8
Working volume (cubic cub) 4172
Power (L.S. at about/min) 335 at 6500
Moment (nm at rpm) 430 at 3500
The permanent drive is complete
Gearbox 6-speed automatic with a handbrake
Length/width/height (mm) 5175/1900/1450
Wheel base (mm) 3000
Equipped mass (kg) 2165
Maximum speed (km/h) 250
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 6.9
The price in Moscow from $ 97 thousand.
Source: "Autopilot"
