Test drive Volkswagen Phaeton 2002 - 2009 sedan

We all came out of the people

Time has replaced the concepts. What is a folk car if the luxurious sedan of the representative class bears the name Volkswagen Phaeton?
A bad habit-to try to translate the name of the brand into another language-one of the top managers of Volkswagen AG was strict. “You do not require Ivan-Golyaku bar, but order Johnny Walker, and the name of the Japanese Mitsubishi autofirm do not sink into three diamonds.” Why, then, do you still have a folkswagen, you still have a folk car? .. Well, firstly, until recently, the Republic of Kot'd'iwoire was called an ivory coast. Secondly, not with us, but in your model range there has not been worse than the passato of the beast yet.
 
 
   
In the rear flashlights, Volkswagen for the first time seriously used two-tone light-diode

 
 
The maximum speed of the most powerful phaeton is limited by electronics at a mark of 250 kmh, however, the manufacturer claims that the all -wheel drive transmission, which is equipped with Phaeton W12, is designed for a speed of 300 kmh and power up to 612 hp. On the one hand, a rehearsal to the launch of the Bentley GT all-wheel drive compartment, on which the same W12, but with a turbonaduv will give out more than 500 hp. On the other hand, the namesakes of chipling: with reconfigurated brains, Phaeton will be able to fly at a speed of 290 kmh.
 
BLOOD TRANSFUSION. In some ways, the touchy German gentleman was right. They are too far from the people. And for a long time. The same VW Golf, despite the countless classmates from Japan-France-Ilealy, continues to remain in its class a bestseller, preserving far from folk numbers on the price tags. Last year, Passat W8 appeared - the only one in the segment with a car with an eight -cylinder power unit. Is it too surprised that Phaeton, as a diligent student of rich parents, having handed over a business class, immediately jumped into the representative of the representative and there he sat down at the same desk with Burses from Stuttgart and Munich?
Alas, to become the first in the classroom, today it is not enough to be a diligent guy from a peasant family from the town of Kholmogora, you must have a noble surname. Indeed, acquiring a luxurious sedan, the buyer gives his dollars-Europe not only for horsepower and panels of breeds far from Arkhangelogorod wood. He also pays for the name. For the propellers of the First World War and the sports victories of BMW motorcycles. For the almost biblical beards and mustaches of the Daimler-Benza-Mabah ...
The Volkswagen of Blue Blood in the analyzes has not yet been noticed. Therefore, the pedigree has to come up with. For a halt during a journalistic test drive, of course, Lyubbenau Castle was chosen, in front of the facade of which were two Packard Phaeton seventy years of exposure-the namesakes of the current Volkswagena flagship. In the lobby of a glass manufactory - an enterprise specially built in Dresden for assembly VW Phaeton, - the Horch brand is flaunted, which can conditionally be considered a cousin of a company from Wolfsburg. With the same success, one could put Bentley, but more on that later.
By the way, Glaeserne Manufaktur itself is also part of the legend of the phaeton. Behind the glass walls of the plant, the VW Phaeton buyer can spend a day and a half - just so much will crawl along the conveyor, covered with ash parquet, his car. After the car on a special elevator will get into the ceremonial hall, where in a festive atmosphere it will be handed over to the owner's hands. Remember, in Soviet maternity hospitals: three rubles, if the nanny took you a girl, and for the boy - as many as five. However, we again went astray on the plebeian reasoning. The leadership of the concern seriously expects that every third German buying Phaeton will want to be present during its assembly. Well, if you have no time, then in the near future Germany will be covered with a network of dealerships, which will specialize exclusively on the sale of Phaeton - this is how the concern wants to even more distance the representative class from other brand machines.
The tradesman in the nobility? Those who want new answers must ask new questions - inscribed on the advertising booklet of Phaeton. Alas, not everyone has been imbued so far, and many argue in the old fashioned way. Specially leaving the car on the brisk Berlin streets, we eavesdropped what the Germans say about him. A large Passat is if they come in front. Audi A8 - if they look from the side. Actually, there is nothing bad that the car retained the clan features of the company. However, we would not risk the machine that determines the image of the car of the car in a completely new machine, we would not risk it. Xenon headlights deeply planted in wings? Turning point indicators integrated into the rear -view mirrors? Or the third side glass of an exceptionally independent design, which for some reason, the VW designers pay attention to? Unless the optics of the rear lights look really original - Volkswagen first served in serially two -tone LEDs, which at twilight create an unlike shine around the car stern.
 
But what is the salon! Bentley's luxurious interiors immediately come to mind - not without reason the brand now belongs to VW AG. The abundance of chromium, plastic of the highest quality, soft leather, wooden panels, which by order can be not only of different breeds, but also decorated with intricate inlays. No cold techno, which many for some reason consider a sign of a 21st century car. Rather, on the contrary, a sort of nod towards retro: chrome rims of analog appliances and cup holders, stylish watches in the upper part of the central console, vertically stimulated pillows and backs of the seats ... or such a greetings from the 70s, like a parking brake, which is not included in a lever Or a button, and a polished steel pedal. It will probably not be very convenient to pass with a handbag, but it looks stylish.
In other words, we are not a tradesman in the nobility, such as those who periodically break into Europe from the Far East, but a truly luxurious sedan of a representative class.
It is convenient to sit at the back, but we did not find an outstanding volume, although the manufacturer claims that in the free space for the knees of the rear passengers Phaeton, the best in its class.
Today, there are few four -zone climateatics today, but how his work is furnished outward! When the temperature in the cabin reaches a given size, the deflectors on the front panel are automatically plunged with wooden overlays. Then begins a beardless scattered blowing - the salon breathes through micropores in a dashboard, doors and racks. The air control sensor does not allow the glasses to fog. Even a car hatch is also a climatic installation: the solar battery integrated into it nourishes an electric fan that ventilates Phaeton in the parking lot.
 
Oats are now expensive. Although it would not hurt to think about the climate outside the passenger compartment: when we moved from the asphalt to German oats, closer to the people, and left the car for several minutes with the engine turned on, the grass near the front end instantly gnawed - from the hood and wings, behind which a six -liter W12, the heat goes like a domain furnace. Phaeton raised the body on the laundry - the suspension itself adapts the clearance to the conditions of the road surface and speed: at 160 km/h, it presses the car to the road for 1.5 cm, and on the potholes, on the contrary, lifts it 2.5 cm from the norm. The suspension tuning can be changed and manually - behind the gearbox, there are special buttons for this. They also set up four parameters of the rigidity of shock absorbers: basic, comfortable and two sports. However, oats are, of course, the plebeian episode, Phaeton is unworthy. Twelve cylinders familiar to us by Audi A8 6.0 Quattro are needed for an autobahn.
The acceleration is surprisingly smooth - as if the W12 is equipped with a variator, and not a five -speed automatic transmission. A hundred Phaeton is gaining in six with a penny of seconds, and when moving in any mode under the gas pedal, there is always a reserve of traction. The maximum speed, as expected, is limited by electronics at a mark of 250 km/h, however, the manufacturer claims that the all -wheel drive transmission, which is equipped with Phaeton W12, is designed for a speed of 300 km/h and power up to 612 hp. On the one hand, a rehearsal to launch the Bentley GT all -wheel drive compartment, on which the same W12, but already with turbocharged, will give out more than 500 hp. On the other hand, a hint of chip tuning fans: with reconfigurated brains, Phaeton will be able to fly at a speed of 290 km/h. Only two points were not impressed. An empty steering wheel - at a speed of more than 200 km/h, it turns too easily, although the reaction of the machine, of course, is not so fast. Plus, a slightly long reaction to Kick Dauna appeared. Phaeton behaves much more vigorously if you lower the gears manually -two large g -shaped levers with markings + and - -are sticking out of the steering wheel from the speaker. From the habit of one of them you always cling to one of them, including a turn indicator.
But the Phaeton C V6 and the six -speed mechanics of these shortcomings is completely deprived of. The car is amazing - maybe it affects that it is two and a half centners easier? Of course, 241 hp is not 420 hp, but in combination with the usual dynamics handle more than enough.
Applied linguistics. In Zastecolia, the VW AG manufactures is planning to collect up to 30 thousand phaetons per year. It will turn out or not - let's see. In any case, the German word Volkswagen will now definitely be translated into all languages \u200b\u200bof the world exclusively as Volkswagen.
 
Text Dmitry Gronsky, photo of the author and VW AG

Model/Modification Volkswagen Phaeton Volkswagen Phaeton
Manufacturer/country Volkswagen AG/Germany Volkswagen AG/Germany
BODY
Type sedan sedan
Number of doors/places 4/4 4/4
ENGINE
Gasoline type with electronic injection gasoline with electronic injection
Front location, longitudinally in front, longitudinally
Working volume (cubic meter) 3189 5998
The number/location of the cylinders 6/V-shaped 12/W-shaped
Power, kW (L.S.) at about./Min. 177 (241) at 6200 309 (420) at 6000
Moment (Nm at about./Min.) 315 at 2400 550 at 3000
TRANSMISSION
The front drive is full
Mechanical gearbox, 6-speed automatic, 5-speed Tiptronic
SUSPENSION
Front/ rear independent, pneumatic, two -wing, ESP/ independent, pneumatic, on trapezoidal levers, ESP independent, pneumatic, two -leaf, ESP/ independent, pneumatic, on trapezoidal levers, ESP
STEERING
Type gear rack with a hydraulic booster gear-rake with a hydraulic booster
Min. Diameter of the turn (m) 12.0 12.0
Brakes
Front/rear circular ventilated/disk ventilated ventilated/disk ventilated
ABS 4-channel, EPBD, Brake Assist System 4-channel, EPBD, Brake Assist System
Dimensions/volumes/weight
Length/width/height (mm) 5055/1903/1450 5055/1903/1450
Wheel base (mm) 2881 2881
Equipped mass (kg) 2069 2319
Tires/Disks 235/60 R16Y/7 1/2JX16 235/50 R18Y/7 1/2JX18
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed (km/h) 245 250
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 8.4 6.1
Economy
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 16.2/8.8 23.9/10.9
The price in Moscow from $ 50-110 thousand from $ 50-110 thousand.

 

Source: "Autopilot"