With this thought in mind I met an awaiting Phaeton owner while dropping off the press car. Hopping out of his previous generation A8, he walked over to inspect the car that he had on order. I asked him why he decided to purchase it and he smiled saying, "There are some meetings where the Bentley just won't do." Enough said. Querying VW staff later, I found out that the new Phaeton would be just one of six premium vehicles in this owner's garage.
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| The fact that the Phaeton isn't really attention getting turns out to be a selling feature for some. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
While discrete the Phaeton does offer all the luxury and refinement a person could want, unless of course you've been raised on Bentleys. Volkswagen's perceived interior quality has long since been the crème de la crème of the industry, whether referring to a base-line Golf or what was a top of the line Passat.
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| The interior of the Phaeton is near perfection, with truly impressive attention to detail. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
The Phaeton is drop-dead stunning inside, better than the majority of its competition including the more expensive Audi A8 L. And I'm not just talking about interior design, something the car exudes with high levels of taste and execution. Rather, I'm talking about the thoughtful attention to the minutest of details. For instance, its switchgear is fixed tighter in place than the more expensive A8 L, at least the Audi that I tested wasn't particularly refined when it came to this nor the few that I have since checked over. The VW, on the other hand, only featured a slightly loose power mirror control on the center console. Volkswagen cleverly mirrors the rotating knob with a near identically designed cigarette lighter on the right side of the shifter. Multiple-way heated seats are set into the same interface, with buttons for shock settings, right height adjustment and for defeating the ESP stability and traction control, in between.