VW Phaeton Assembly (more car stuff)
 

Those guys are fast! See the motion blur?

I wonder if such a compact 12-cylinder would fit in a W123?
http://www.hostdub.com/albums/PanEuropean/w12_1.jpg

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.

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

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.

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.

GOOD LORD!!!

What a thing of beauty! Been in many USA Plants, but nothing compares with this! Differen t thinking and philosophy entirely. Could be NASA!!!

Great Car! Too Bad it never made it.

Vedersehehn...

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.

i have few regrets in life but a similar thought pattern made me pass up spending a few extra days in san francisco when i was out there for the national school board convention 10 years ago. i didnt even go see any redwoods!

never again.

tom w

Truley space-age.

PC Dave, the Phaeton is no longer being manufactured, check it out on some of the message boards from Germany that concern VW. VW didn't really know how to market them. There are about 200 Phaetons sitting on a lot near Wolfsburg, rusted brakes and everything, VW just lets them sit there.

Yes, VW discontinued their shipments of Phaetons to the US market and made this announcement in November of 2005, but soon after that production of the car stopped. I know an American group went over to Dresden to visit the factory and from what I read VW officials weren't very forthcoming with info about the future of Phaeton

really cool looking factory.

although the old ford factory from the twenties was pretty cool looking, that puts it to shame for sure.

it is nicer than my house!

tom w

really cool looking factory.

although the old ford factory from the twenties was pretty cool looking, that puts it to shame for sure.

it is nicer than my house! dont get me wrong, my house is nice.

you have to think the workers would be influenced by the excellence of the architecture and be more inclined to do excellent work.

kindof like we learned in Architecture school it would be.

i have been in indy car race shops in indianapolis before and they were very clean but the building was just an ordinary steel building or a pole barn...nothing like this.

tom w

How come they dont just sell them as an Audi?:confused: