Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 2005 Volkswagen Phaeton
From our Top 20 Dumbest Cars of All Time list, I'd found examples of nine during my junkyard travels (Ford Pinto, Pontiac Aztek, Cadillac Cimarron, Ford Mustang II, 1990 Chrysler Imperial, Smart ForTwo, Chevrolet Vega, Mercedes-Benz R-Class and Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible) prior to now. Since it's very unlikely that I'll fun across a Fuller Dymaxion or Horsey Horseless in a Ewe Pullet, I knew I'd have to keep my eyes open for #8 on the list: the Volkswagen Phaeton. Just over 2,200 Phaetons were sold in the United States, but I've found similarly rare machines just by being persistent. Sure enough, I found this '05 in a Northern California yard recently, a few rows over from a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.
Since the name Volkswagen means People's Car, you'd think that the idea of a showy luxury sedan bearing the badges of such a proletarian brand wouldn't make much sense in North America. After all, Toyota, Nissan and Honda each grasped that American vehicle shoppers associated their brands with sensible but affordable machinery (such is not the case back in Japan) and created separate snootified marques to sell their luxury wheels over here.
Anyway, Ferdinand Piëch decreed that there would be a big VW luxury sedan based on the same platform as the Bentley Continental GT, stuffed with running gear borrowed from the Audi A8. This happened, and the Phaeton was the result. Phaetons were built from the 2003 through 2016 model years, but only the 2004 to 2006 models were sold in the United States and Canada. This car is one of 820 Phaetons sold in the USA for the 2005 model year.
A bewildering variety of engines, both gasoline and diesel, were available in Phaetons sold elsewhere, but just two made it to North American VW dealers: a 4.2-liter V8 and a 6.0-liter W12. This car has the V8, which was rated at 335 horsepower and 317 pound-feet (the W12 had 420 horsepower and 406 pound-feet).
You'll be pleased to know that this engine made nearly 14 times as many horses as the first Volkswagens imported to the United States (and that's before factoring in the gross-versus-net ratings switcheroo that happened here in the early 1970s).
