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After a three year run that could only be described as “abysmal”, Volkswagen is pulling the plug on the Phaeton in the US. Designed to compete with the likes of the BMW 7 series and the Mercedes S class, the Phaeton V8 started at a whopping $67,500. Throw in an insane 444hp W-12 engine, and the price is right up around $100,000.

It’s not that the car is not luxurious, but rather that most people just can’t seem to fathom paying such an exhorbitant sum for a Volkswagen. Plus, the 5,400 pound behemoth just doesn’t quite have the handling of the BMW, which can be had for about the same price as a V8 Phaeton. Seems to me Volkswagen would have been smarter to sell the car under the Bentley name. $67,500 would be cheap for a Bentley.

Yearly sales figures in the US for the Phaeton are numbered in the hundreds. Volkswagen had predicted that by now this number would be more like 10,000. Oops. The car will continue to be sold in other parts of the world, but sales abroad haven’t been impressive either, so I’d expect the car to be phased out entirely in the next few years.

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