I think I know the answer, but the car intrigues me. Pictures look gorgeous. The interior is minty. The car is said to run and drive "good." I assume that it is not the W12, but no mention is made of engine. Shall I assume these things are as durable as a BMW 3-series and have parts as cheap as a Chevy? Or no? Asking price is well below KBB private party value for "good" condition.
Reliable as a 3 series, sure, because I don’t consider the 3 series that great on reliability. Cheap as a chevy, probably not, but I don’t consider chevys to be that cheap, at times.
on a scale of 3 to all of them, how many warning lights are on?
How good are you at German electrical?
I actually say buy. If it were a passat or CC I'd say run, but I think VW badged A8 should age fine.
captdownshift wrote: I actually say buy. If it were a passat or CC I'd say run, but I think VW badged A8 should age fine.
I'd also say buy it, they're great cars if a little quirky to maintain.
But it's not an A8 at all. It's pretty much a Bentley Continental Flying Spur, just without the twin turbo W12 and Bentley badges (and a lot cheaper). It's the same chassis, etc. And like the Bentley, the Phaeton is hand built.
As a note, being the all-steel Bentley chassis, they're HEAVY. IIRC, it's about 5200 lbs for a V8, 5400 for a W12 
The A8 is nearly 1000 lbs lighter, as it's got a lot more aluminum, etc.
The number one reason to not buy a Phaeton is the existence of the Audi A8/A8L. It is AMAZING what a difference the aluminum chassis makes.
Granted, the Audi won't have those awesome trunk hinges.
It is a safe bet that the car is a V8, because it is still on the road. The W12 had a shockingly high early-mortality rate. Oddly enough, trying to shove 12 separate rod throws in an engine with about the same length as an inline four makes for some structural-integrity issues in the crankshaft region.
Knurled wrote: It is a safe bet that the car is a V8, because it is still on the road.
Also because out of the 3200-ish Phaetons sold in the US, IIRC only about 300 had the W12.
In reply to rslifkin:
Well if it's a Bentley they rally well.
As the only board member to have actually owned and driven a 2005 Phaeton let me impart a bit of wisdom here.
The car is mechanically an A8, that's a good thing and the parts are robust. It is HEAVY as mentioned, this is both good (It's probably the safest car on the road) and bad (tires and suspension bushings take a beating). It's supremely comfortable and isolates you from the road in impressive ways. Side window glass is double glazed and several times during my tenure I'd catch myself thinking "jeeze everyone is driving slow today" only to realize that I was cruising along at 120 and it felt exactly the same as 70.
The problem is the fact that it's a 2005 with computers developed by Germans in 2001. These are not the best computers in the world and when something fails DIY is challenging as is finding a place willing to work on one. With so few of them in existence the field of experienced techs is small. Many shops will NEVER have even seen one and when they get yours it'll live there for a while. Have another car for this time. Seriously. Mine spent 6 weeks at the dealership trying to sort out the TPMS system.
Did they get the TPMS fixed? My parents bought and still have a phaeton and the dealer was never able to work that quirk out of it.
Yup. I owned mine during the sweet spot in it's depreciation curve. purchased in 2008 with 34,000 miles on it (under the 36,000 miles bumper to bumper warrantee) for $24,500. Took it directly to a dealer who was "certified" to work on them. They finally sorted out all the little quirks the car had and my ex then racked up a bunch of miles commuting over the next couple of years during which it had ZERO problems. I got the car in the divorce in 2010 and sold it for $20,000 with 69,800 miles on it.
YMMV
KyAllroad wrote: As the only board member to have actually owned and driven a 2005 Phaeton let me impart a bit of wisdom here.
Wanna bet? 
Mine was the 12 though. It's currently sitting at a VW Dealer and hasn't moved for 2 years
In reply to KyAllroad:
I assume you no longer have the car. Why did you get rid of it? On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your ownership experience? Any interest whatsoever in getting another one?
The main issue is you can buy them for under $10K. If a big repair pops up, do you spend $3k to fix it?
MDJeepGuy wrote: The main issue is you can buy them for under $10K. If a big repair pops up, do you spend $3k to fix it?
That would double my investment in this case, so no. But I suspect that the current owner is aware of an issue that already puts it in that situation. I've got too much going on today to spend more time on this thing. Thanks for the input!
I'm sure this is a very well-documented LSx swap candidate. LOL.
I think the title of this thread should be:
after I buy, walk or run?
MDJeepGuy wrote:KyAllroad wrote: As the only board member to have actually owned and driven a 2005 Phaeton let me impart a bit of wisdom here.Wanna bet?
My apologies sir. The dealership I took my Passat to in Pensacola had a Phaeton in their service department....for 18 months.
Put Passat badges on it. See how many people you can fool.
Walk or run? Third option- do the world a favor and burn it to the ground.
Knurled wrote: It is a safe bet that the car is a V8, because it is still on the road. The W12 had a shockingly high early-mortality rate. Oddly enough, trying to shove 12 separate rod throws in an engine with about the same length as an inline four makes for some structural-integrity issues in the crankshaft region.
Is it the W12 that is in the Bentley as I have friends with like 150K+ miles on theirs still going strong. Never any crank issues and they have boost as well.
In reply to wearymicrobe:
Yep. Same W12, just without the turbos. Audi used it too.
wearymicrobe wrote:Knurled wrote: It is a safe bet that the car is a V8, because it is still on the road. The W12 had a shockingly high early-mortality rate. Oddly enough, trying to shove 12 separate rod throws in an engine with about the same length as an inline four makes for some structural-integrity issues in the crankshaft region.Is it the W12 that is in the Bentley as I have friends with like 150K+ miles on theirs still going strong. Never any crank issues and they have boost as well.
Might be a different unit. There's a 1st series and 2nd series W12. It was my understanding that the 1st series had a near 100% failure rate, and the Phaeton had the 1st series.
KyAllroad wrote:MDJeepGuy wrote:My apologies sir. The dealership I took my Passat to in Pensacola had a Phaeton in their service department....for 18 months.KyAllroad wrote: As the only board member to have actually owned and driven a 2005 Phaeton let me impart a bit of wisdom here.Wanna bet?
I am 100% sure you have, in fact, DRIVEN one much more than me, so you win
Yes, electronics can suck with these VAG's but there's usually an easy fix and that's to re-solder all the boards causing the issues as they develop micro-cracks between the solder and the boards.
One can imagine how checking circuits on those boards yield nothing specifically wrong hardware-wise, but that cracks usually goes unnoticed.
A soldering torch is the best way to fix it.
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