right ear was very informed.

Left audio channel has left the chat. I wish YouTube had an inbuilt feature to just mix both channels to mono...

Excellent review - I actually don't mind that the newer ones could be confused with a Passat - it adds to its "stealthy" low key presence.

I really love the passion you have for the technical details based on facts and figures . Usually I watch these twice as there are too many facts and considerations why a gp is better than the other.
Old tech but in a different light. I was at the first presentation of the Phaeton and still remember the trunk and its massive parts to close it .  I had been invited from an Audi Dealer with a VW store cause a friend should get a new A8 and ended up buying the bentley from VW. Good memories from a beautifull sunny sunday where the dealer had much luck with the weather as those days with lots of families and events rely a lot on the weather forecast. .

Always learn something interesting from the videos posted by this channel. I had never heard of the Jorg Haider crash or his life story.

I have gp4 3.0TDI, and I love it. Maintaining ir properly, everything is original. To me a Phaeton is the one of the best car of all time just because of ambitions of Ferdinand Piech.

Fellow ex-VW guy here.  I recall there were a design study for actual MK II Phaeton.  As China still sell about 30K units a year at 2016.  If you sit in the back seat of the Phaeton, close your eyes.  It rides errie similar to Bentley Mulssan.  Best ride quality in the group vehicle for sure.

The gp4 3.0 tdi 245hp cexb was euro 5, it was exacty the same as the gp3 cexa 239, same injectors, same turbo, same ecu, same exhaust after treatment. I only had the gp3 and gp4 versions and yes the infotaintment is more modern but I agree with you that the old version looks more expensive.. more like a bentley, the rns810 just looks like a bigger rns510

Piech Ära was golden. I own a MK4 and it is a great car. 22 years old and barely any rust. Very comfy and reliable car.

After watching your video I would really want to buy the gp2 because of it euro 5 and I love the old look. I wish VW had continue the phaeton

I feel like the criticism that this car looks like a big Passat is both valid and unfair. On the one hand they do look similar of course, on the other hand the same could be said about a lot of cars like the E38 7 series and E39 5 series, or the Audi C6 and D3 but that doesn't seem to be as big if a deal as with the phaeton.

Always great video's regarding all things VW Phaeton. The Phaeton still remains my favorite ever flagship saloon, and i agree, the GP1 & GP2 are the best looking, and the signature rear tail-lamps clusters with the 4 circles should have remained its rear signature no matter what.  
I must say , I have always felt that rather than trying to commercially compete with Mercedes, BMW etc on sales numbers ..... the timeless Phaeton should have been a permanent forever flagship ,and treated like Toyota did with its Century Flagship, which has evolved and run for decades.  
They could have continued producing it in low numbers at the glass factory, and also produced to special order only.
Like the Toyota Century ,the Phaeton's  timeless design would simply evolve as the Century has done, with a facelift every decade or so, and it also would have been perfect to evolve into a full electric.  
Treated as such, it would have permanently remained as its halo flagship, and continue to show the world what Volkswagen can do.  
Its such a shame, because even though they did not consider taking this commercial tact from the beginning, it surprises me that they still missed the opportunity well into production, when the writing was on the wall regarding its sales performance, against its competitors.  The 2022 D2 new version Phaeton concept reveal, tells me they still did not consider the Century approach, because it looked totally different from the D1 original.

About playing your music through the radio: for the RCD200 radio thats in my Polo 9n3 you can get a little module that connects to the cd changer connector and then acts as a bluetooth receiver. It even supports track skipping and picking up the phone using the buttons on the radio. One of those might just work for your system as well, I imagine they used the same standards for all their cd changers. You'll have to disconnect your cd changer of course but, as you said, who listens to cds anymore.

All Phaeton versions are my favourite ones 😉

Nice triple 7 plate, we had that too on our phaeton

Deeper love..... Deeeeeper looove

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from memory there was also a big change in the speakers system between the GP1 and the GP2 versions. GP2 introduced the Dynaudio System, while the GP0 and the GP1 used another premium system (not branded). It seems that the way music sounded inside the car changed a lot, as even though Dynaudio was great, the processor distorted the sound, while the previous system had more play modes and different sound altogether.

GP1 but its running a turbo'd VR6.😂 Its got enough torque to get the heavy body up to speed  and sounds fantastic, its insanely thirsty😢 phaetons are an experience, in the way they cover distance so effortlessly.

I would prefer the GP2, good engines and somewhat usable infotainment with classic exterior look. 3.0tdi is probably the best for regular driving and 4.2 if you drive rarely.
If you want to have full options the original with 4.2 is probably the best. Engine doesn't have huge problems except for timing chain, but this is a job you do once. Rear subframe you can protect against rust. Probably something you should do anyway, on these VAG cars it can look really bad behind plastic covers and heatshields, if the subframe is defect the rest of the car is also done rust wise.

If only they made a wagon version of it.