Buying a second hand luxury car

lincroft1710

Phaeton is good value, a few years ago Top Gear magazine said it was one of the best value cars on s/h market.

BUT it is still a VW, one which few people have heard of and won't impress as much as an Audi, BMW or Merc. Yes, badge snobbery.

stefano

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Phaeton is good value, a few years ago Top Gear magazine said it was one of the best value cars on s/h market.

BUT it is still a VW, one which few people have heard of and won't impress as much as an Audi, BMW or Merc. Yes, badge snobbery.

So, as I am not bothered about the badge, I would still be getting a lot of car for the money.
Next issue would be v6 or v10 diesel.

bowlhead99

stefano wrote: »

So, as I am not bothered about the badge, I would still be getting a lot of car for the money.
Next issue would be v6 or v10 diesel.

V10 all the way.

The point of the phaeton as you say is get a lot of car for your money. If you get the 5 litre V10 you have a big car with a big engine and you can waft effortlessly about the place not worrying too much that your car weighs a good quarter of a ton more than the nearest Audi equivalent. Relatively cheap, surprisingly torquey engine and the most luxury thing (out of the cars branded 'VW') that the group sold. Doesn't matter that there's no brand recognition, you'll know what it is and you'll be comfy which makes up for having to explain all the time what a Phaeton is to non-car people...

Whereas if you get the smaller engine you are basically driving around in something bigger and heavier and over a foot longer than a Passat but with under 250bhp and taking over 8 seconds to 60 - hardly 'wafting effortlessly about'.

BeenThroughItAll

stefano wrote: »

So, as I am not bothered about the badge, I would still be getting a lot of car for the money.
Next issue would be v6 or v10 diesel.

Just be aware, whilst the V6 isn't really quite powerful enough, the V10 TDI is horribly thirsty for a diesel. As low as mid 20s MPG eminently achievable if you use all the available performance.

stefano

On a different note. I notice the Phaeton has air suspensions. How reliable is that system overall?
I'm a bus driver and has air suspensions on my vehicles. I understand that if the pump goes, it will cost a small fortune. But are they more reliable than the systems on the buses, which in fairness do work a lot harder than it would on a car.

jimbo747

Citroen c6 is another potential, lots of toys, seats as comfy as your sofa. Nearly bought one a few years ago, values seem to have remained steady over last few years.

Otherwise the lexus LS or GS is a lot of car and tech for the price - I just can't get over there being a cassette player in them even though they were built well in to this decade!

Stoke

I spoke about my bangernomics experience with a 'luxury' (well, in the loosest sense of the term) car, and oldish Audi A4 B6 model.

Although it was a lovely car to drive, and experience problems kept coming out of the woodwork and it has put me off an older luxury car. It's also made me wonder whether some of the useful extra luxuries can be added to your cheaper vehicle, while ignoring the 'unnecessary' luxuries.