German Car Zone

Oh ..........I love it Marcus. It is like poetry in motion -- you are right of course -- but it's a little bit of industrial fantasy -- industrial production as high-tech performance art. It is very seductive to me ...I must admit.

Madness was the Phaeton project when it was conceived.

But the factory has been built, they surely have to do something about it. Maybe let Porsche use it, or sell it to one of the other German car manufacturers.

I think the Phaeton has the best manufacturing facility of any car in production today. Which made me quite curious when I saw the actual cost of building the car (when we let go of the Phaeton 3.2); it was actually pretty low. About 40% lower than a A8 4.2Q.

Just remember folks V8/A8 was not a success overnight

Also all the money the Bentley Continental brand would be making would easily compensate for the expenditure of the Phaeton II.

Originally I believe Dresden was also going to build VW's W12 Coupe there.

It's quite interesting. I remember reading on VW Vortex that the A8 sold the same or just a little more cars than the Phaeton did on its first few years of production. Is there any truth to that? If so... We might just see the Phaeton doing better in the future, with public acceptance.

Don't have V8 (D1) Production Figures but A8 (D2) shows it does actually outsell Phaeton.

Audi A8 Production Figures
2005 = 21,509
2004 = 22,429
2003 = 21.748
2002 = 10.942
2001 = 11.708
2000 = 12.894
1999 = 14.636
1998 = 15.355
1997 = 15.507
1996 = 11.098

Oh... Anyway, do you any word on what electronics the next Phaeton will use? If they're sharing it with the Continental and Arnage range then it starts to get interesting.

Too early James