I recall NoFM2R mentioning the potential costs involved with one of these beauties.
This Swiss fellow spells it out (4 years of W12 ownership)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzImp-p0QPc
Oooft!
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To be fair in the whole time I had mine it cost me the fuel and a couple of service - which were expensive, but not killer. Tyre cost was the worst - damage one, replace 4. Until you build up your own stock of part used.
It was a fantastic car and I loved every moment of it, especially bearing in mind how far ahead of it's time it was. It was without doubt the best car I have ever owned, and it had some strong competition. It had no faults, nothing I didn't love. No passenger ever failed to be impresed.
But you would have to be out of your tiny mind to own one of these out of warranty. I forget the exact figures now but a small pipe on the power steering was replaced under warranty. and it was something like £14 for the part and £1,400 for the labour.
I tried to watch the video but I'm afraid I'd have slit my own wrists if I'd tried to continue beyond 30 seconds. However, I got the impression that he bought an older, luxury vehicle and then tried to maintian and service it like it was brand new. Bit dumb really.
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Bought at 5yr old and 70k miles for 20k swiss francs.
Sold 4 yrs and 45k miles later for 9k Sf.
Total cost of everything inc depreciation was c 75k Sf
That's £65k over 4 years.
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Ouch!
Ideal car for someone who can do the repairs themselves and has access to cheap spares (perhaps even a donor car or scrapyard for limos).
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He took a very long time to get the message!
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>>Ideal car for someone who can do the repairs themselves
You mostly can't. Running gear perhaps but the engine and gearbox are computerised monsters.
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>> >>Ideal car for someone who can do the repairs themselves
>>
>> You mostly can't. Running gear perhaps but the engine and gearbox are computerised monsters.
As is just about everything inside the car as well.
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£65k over 4 years is silly. At best he's a very slow learner.
It's a while ago but as I recall I paid about £60k for mine and sold it around 4 years later for about £35k. So that was around £500 per month depreciation.
I simply don't remember what servicing cost but it was b****** expensive, that I do know. £1,000 a go, or something like that. It probably had 4 of those.
As far as I can recall the only other money I spent was about £3k on tyres.
So it cost me about £700 per month or something like that.
When I wa looking to replace it with an S Class I worked out that depreciation alone on the Merc was £1,100 per month.
But don't rely on me, I don't really rememvber the figures very well. I do remember that it was 100% worth the money and I would have kept it forever were it not for the warranty / maintenance & repair cost concern.
Ultimately my inablity to find a better car to replace it with was why I lost all interest in paying stupid money for the latest exec toys and so spent a few years down at the 10yr old BMW / Volvo / Merc area - and very hppily and successfullly too.
Now I buy around the £30k 12 month old 4WD SUV stuff and drive it for as long as possible. Which I like.
Current is a Nissan Murano which I have grown to hate and a Ford Explorer which I really enjoy.
I'd have another Phaeton now, but only if I could buy it for money that I could afford to throw away if it broke - which it probably wouldn't but it might, and if it did the repair costs would be monstrous.
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£3k will get you one on Autotrader, so almost disposable price. I noticed quite a few of the 28 for sale in the UK had what seemed to me quite a few owners - not unusual to see four or five listed in the advert. I think buyers were bailing out having had a taste of the running costs.
For something really exotic it might be worth it but to me the Phaeton looks like an over-grown Passat and is therefore not desirable enough to warrant the running costs.
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The Owners Forum at forums.vwvortex.com/forumdisplay.php?112-Phaeton is very good. Plenty of scope for DIY maintenenance and VCDS Diagnostic software/cable is a must. Water ingress killing the KESSY module seems common (immobiliser/keyless module).
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Volkswagen Phaeton - Phaeton cost of ownership - No FM2R
