The Phaeton is the largest car in the Volkswagen range. It is built on the Volkswagen Group’s D1 platform, which it shares with the Bentley Continental GT and Bentley Continental Flying Spur models, and the transmission and some engines borrowed from the Audi A8. The Phaeton was created to compete with other prestigious German cars made by Mercedes-Benz and BMW. It was a kind of response to the fact that Mercedes-Benz (with Class A) and later BMW (with Series 1) began to penetrate the Volkswagen market, a market for small, relatively inexpensive cars. The car also had to establish the image of the Volkswagen brand as a luxury car manufacturer, as the usual VW Golf or VW Passat began to chase the models of the more luxurious brands in terms of price. The car makers were given 10 parameters that the car had to meet. Several of them - the car had to reach a speed of 300 km / h, keep the interior temperature at 22 ° C, when the temperature outside the window reaches 50 ° C. The most powerful Phaeton engine is the famous dual V6 - 6.0 L W12 with 450 hp (331 kW) / 6050 rpm, 560 Nm / 2750 rpm of torque and was able to accelerate to 100 km / h in 6.1 s. The car has a wealth of standard equipment, a compressed air-operated suspension and an endless variety of luxury items. However, the Phaeton did not become a successful model - partly because the price of the car was really high and very unusual for the Volkswagen brand, which is still called another folk car.