Post-Piech, VW's Phaeton gets delayed - Automotive News
Tinkering with the $100,000 Volkswagen Phaeton has ended careers at VW. Wolfgang Bernhard's decision to pull the car from the U. S. in 2006 because of weak demand contributed to the ouster of the executive, who ran the VW brand at the time and... The internal politics involving the Phaeton stemmed from the fact that the big sedan was a pet project of Ferdinand Piech when he was chairman. VW's engineering-obsessed boss ordered its development to take on the Mercedes-Benz S class, demanding that the Phaeton be able to drive comfortably at speeds as high as 186 mph. While Mercedes sold more than 100,000 S-class cars last year, VW made about 4,000 Phaetons, a drop of 30 percent. But with Piech gone, will there be a new Phaeton at all. "There is always the element of the Phaeton being the answer to a question no one ever asked," IHS Automotive analyst Tim Urquhart told Bloomberg. Source: www.autonews.com
