If you play your cards right, you should be able to find a W12 Volkswagen Phaeton for less than $20,000. It won’t be the flashiest car in the world, but what it will be is one of the most over-engineered cars to ever hit the streets. Plus, it doesn’t simply have a V12. Instead, it has the far nerdier W12, which still gives you a glorious 12 cylinders, except they’re arranged in a way that saves space, allowing for even more room in the cabin for you, the driver.
Of course, the accountants and financial advisors will tell you that you absolutely shouldn’t, under any circumstances, buy a heavily depreciated W12-powered Volkswagen that requires specialized tools and training in order to work on it. Heck, most mechanics would probably tell you not to buy a Phaeton, if only because they have absolutely no desire to work on one. On the other hand, it’s a W12, and who wouldn’t want one of those in their garage?
That said, if there’s one problem with the W12 Phaeton, it’s that back when it was new, it was a serious business car for serious business people on serious business. Because of that, Ferdinand Piëch forced the engineers to cage the W12 with some big ole mufflers that made it quiet. Arguably too quiet. Now that they’re cheap to buy, though, you too could free a W12 Phaeton from the mufflers of oppression and let it sing. In fact, some could argue you have an obligation to do exactly that.
Listen to the Phaeton’s W12 sing
Why am I bringing this up now? Well, other than having the sickness that makes me obsessed with the W12 Phaeton, the algorithm gods also just blessed me by putting the above video in my feed. And since I have a job where I get paid to share neat car videos I find on the internet, I’m doing exactly that. With a title like “I made my W12 Volkswagen sound like a SUPERCAR” and a thumbnail that says “LAMBO SEDAN,” it would be understandable if you assumed they were overselling what they did for clicks.
The bad news is, that’s just the game creators have to play for YouTube if they want to get any clicks at all. The good news is, this thing sounds absolutely glorious, and it didn’t even require an expensive aftermarket exhaust. Instead, he just broke out the ole “grindy wheel” and cut off all the parts that keep that incredible W12 quiet. Our new friend 100PercentJake also threw on a couple of turn-downs to keep the hot exhaust from damaging the differential and basically called it a day. Sure, the exhaust pipes had a little bit of play in them after all that, but I don’t get the feeling he was going for Concours quality here.
If you’re impatient and just want to hear what the car sounds like, skip to about the 11:17 mark. And trust me, you want to hear what it sounds like. Since a W12 isn’t technically a V12, it’s never going to sound exactly the same as an actual V12 supercar, but it sure sounds way better than a stock Phaeton. In fact, I would argue this is what the Phaeton should have sounded like from the factory. I mean, it’s not like a $100,000 Volkswagen was going to sell in big numbers anyway. Might as well at least make it sound good, right?