VW Phaeton Assembly (more car stuff)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1837641

[AustinsCE]

Those guys are fast! See the motion blur?

I wonder if such a compact 12-cylinder would fit in a W123?

[Ara T.]

After seeing that I'm surprised at all the little bits here and there that were falling apart in the interior of my dad's friends. I'd expect it from a Focus or Corolla, but not on a low mileage, couple year old 80K car.

Originally Posted by 123c

I wonder how they keep everything so clean, I noticed that everyone wore white coveralls, and they all looked clean

Until they put the fluids in there is not anything to get them dirty.

[Trakehner]

Yeah, I wonder how they keep everything so clean. I heard that factory no longer makes Phaetons but they make the Bentley Spur instead since Phaeton will be discontinued and not brought back in 2009 like originally planned.
That is a small 12 cylinder, think it only produces 412 hp, not much for a 12 cylinder I don't think.

[Larry Delor]

Back in 1978, I visited the Mustang II assembly line in Detroit.

Absolutely no comparison.

It looks like one would look forward to getting up and going to work in that VW plant.

[PC Dave]

Originally Posted by Trakehner

Yeah, I wonder how they keep everything so clean. I heard that factory no longer makes Phaetons but they make the Bentley Spur instead since Phaeton will be discontinued and not brought back in 2009 like originally planned.
That is a small 12 cylinder, think it only produces 412 hp, not much for a 12 cylinder I don't think.

The factory still makes Phaetons. It's no longer sold in North America (after MY 2006), but it still sells reasonably well in Europe, particularly the TDI models. If VW imported the SWB V6 TDI Phaeton and sold it in the US in the $50k range, I think sales would pick up significantly. Oh well..

The W12 makes 444 horsepower, not bad for a normally aspirated 6 liter 12 that's tuned for a luxury sedan application - BMW's 6 liter V12 in the 760 makes 438, pretty comparable.

About 20 people from the Vortex Phaeton forum (that was linked above) toured the factory in May. VW put on an awesome show, with dinners, tours, etc. I reserved a spot, then canceled due to business commitments. I really regret that now, it was a once in a lifetime thing.