3.0 TDI

When it's good, it's very very good...

I needed a long distance hauler that could manage the 400 mile round trip to my daughters university and be comfortable enough that I didn't need three days in bed recovering after doing it. This, the Phaeton does very well. A trip like that is a breeze and is no more taxing than a run to the corner shop.

Long distance, the fuel economy is pretty reasonable too and if ever a car was designed to eat up motorways and major A-roads, it's this one. Throw in an excellent sound system, bags of room, a decent sat nav that can be updated for pennies, the beautifully absurd internal heating system and the usual toys and it's more than a decent car.

It'll also shake off nasty weather, flooded roads, storms and has enough oomph to get you out of any trouble you may get into.

But, spare parts are a nightmare. Any twelve year old German luxury car is going to have running costs and repairs and this is no exception. Except with the Phaeton when things do go wrong, you don't just have the problems of bills. You have to find the parts as well. And I mean, hunt when I say find. You will be spending a lot of time on ebay. You can forget VW. I've had trim parts on order with them for well over a year now and the impression I get is that the company just wishes the car would go away. As to non-trim parts the prices VW want are beyond absurd. £1500 for a wing mirror? Without labour.

So this a brave pill of a car to go for. Get a well maintained and looked after one and, if luck is with you, you have one hell of a car that you'll enjoy owning. Have any problems with though and it's a different world. Garages don't want to touch it and you'd better get used to a lot of post from Lithuania.

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