2006 Volkswagen Phaeton Review & Road Test at Automotive.com

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Volkswagen Phaeton V10 TDI

Below is a review of the 2006 Volkswagen Phaeton written by the automotive experts at Automobile Magazine. A full evaluation of the driving experience, price, equipment, and specs are here in a structured, easy-to-navigate format from journalists with a wealth of experience.

2006 Volkswagen Phaeton Costs of Ownership

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IntelliChoice Value Rating

The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.

One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.

What is a good car value?

A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.

But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?

For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)

Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.

Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.

So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.

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Review From Automobile Magazine

Volkswagen Phaeton V10 TDI

By Tony Quiroga / Article provided by: Automobile Magazine

Poise without the noise: VW's premium sedan gets a diesel good enough to challenge the world's best gasoline engines.

Dresden, Germany—

In the early eighties, you could find a diesel in anything from a VW Rabbit to a Mercedes-Benz S-class. Diesels delivered on the promise of superior fuel economy, but they were all severely compromised by the limited technology of the time. Even in the luxurious S-class, the diesel was slow, smoky, and clattered as if powered by a gang of skeleton flamenco dancers. As diesel technology advanced, consumer interest in the U.S. waned. For the past few years, Volkswagen has offered an excellent four-cylinder diesel engine in its Golf and Jetta, but these small cars sell in limited numbers. With the imminent arrival of the Touareg and the luxurious Phaeton, Volkswagen may be ready to bring back the diesel to the luxury car or SUV segment with their uncompromised 5.0-liter V-10 turbo-diesel.

The past twenty years have been extremely kind to the diesel engine: Improvements in engine management, diesel combustion, and high-pressure direct injection have combined to produce diesel engines that are clean, efficient, and fast. On the autobahn from Frankfurt to Dresden, the V-10 powering the luxurious Phaeton never gave any indication that compression instead of spark was responsible for our progress. Except for the badging and the low redline, there are simply no clues that anything but a gasoline engine is under the hood. The V-10 starts immediately, idles silently, and when pressed sounds exactly like a gasoline V-8 with a low redline. This is perhaps the V-10s greatest asset and what would make it viable in the U.S.-there is simply no aural indication that this is anything but a gasoline engine.

Typical of diesels, the V-10 comes in with a staggering torque figure. Coupled with an excellent six-speed automatic, 550 pound-feet of torque is ready to move the over two-and-a-half ton Phaeton smartly at any speed. Although the gasoline 4.2-liter V-8 and even the 6.0-liter W-12 make more than the diesel's 313 horsepower, they cannot touch the effortless neck-snapping torque. Volkswagen quotes a top speed of 155 mph and despite the cholesterol-like traffic on our way to Dresden, an indicated 155-mph came easily and quickly. The four-hour high-speed cruise from Frankfurt to Dresden returned a trip average just over 22 mpg—not bad for a vehicle that weighs as much as a Chevrolet Tahoe. Once we decide to remove the sulfur from our fuel, the world's finest diesel engine may find its way into either the Phaeton or the Touareg. If it does, our perception of the diesel will change quickly and quietly.