VW to bring $85K Phaeton back to U.S.
Volkswagen plans to bring back the $85,000 Phaeton to the U.S., where the sedan flopped and was withdrawn in 2006, as part of the German carmaker's aim of tripling its share of the world's second-largest market by 2018.
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Source: VW to bring $85K Phaeton back to U.S.
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"We have our eyes firmly set on the U.S. market," Juergen Borrmann, director of Volkswagen's plant in Dresden, Germany, where the Phaeton is built, said in an interview. The model will be completely redesigned and retooled before VW begins selling the high-end sedan in the U.S. again, he said. Former CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder pulled the Phaeton from the U.S. four years ago after the car failed to meet sales goals and called a 20,000 global target a "pipe dream." His successor, Martin Winterkorn, later threw his full support behind the model and announced plans to keep the Phaeton. Sales last year fell 27 percent to 4,500 cars. "The U.S. is a most lucrative market for high-end sedans and VW has to tackle that potential if it wants to credibly expand its U.S. presence," said Willi Diez, head of the Nuertingen, Germany-based Institute for Automobile Industry, a state-funded think tank. |
Source: VW to bring $85K Phaeton back to U.S.
