Phaeton W12

erm, I'd reckon you need to spend as little as possible. Get the cheapest good condition one, not worry too much about year or miles and make sure it's got a good warranty.

Ouch - I used to see it as a cheap alternative to a flying spur, but a 2 yr old used flying spur is cheaper than either of those and will plummet towards zero value slower. And it has two turbos.

Adding even more ammunition to the thought that the Phaeton is to VW what the Superb is to Skoda.

Today's anti-badge-snobbery statement is tomorrows private hire minicab...

The Flying Spur is a bit footballer, though.

Give me an Arnage Red Label over any of the above.... the 'final series' looks *very* nice.

It's more "banned footballer", them that can drive themselves have coupes...

I've not seen any of the Liverpool players knocking about in Flying Spurs. Most seem to have Cayenne Turbos..

The Flying Spur reminds me of a big Skoda, whereas the Phaeton strikes me as the kind of car that's driven by the kind of wanker who always tries too hard to be different, I believe they call themselves "early adopters" or something - the kind of gloriously overblown losers who have handsfree phone kits in their sunglasses.

A Phaeton will make sense when it's 7 or 8 years old and has disappeared into that special bit of the used car market that has previously been reserved for leggy 7 series.

Small time dope dealers, bouncers and struggling pub landlords?

And the winner of the September 2008 usenet predictability award goes to.........

Bollocks, I arsed that up - "winner" should read "award".....

Or in my brother's case.

Multi car household, big old barge that does 16mpg and cost less than a grand is a bit of fun.

I was seriously tempted to buy a pair of these at the airport recently:

And AstraVanMan.

Don't worry about justifying your bro's choice, it seems that if you've moved to a tiny house in Wales because you freely admit you're not prepared to pay for a tiny house anywhere nice, the one thing it is imperative you avoid appearing to be is a drug dealer, bouncer or pub landlord.

I'm confident that there's a fair proportion of people in any or all 3 trades who live not too far from me, and none of them drive leggy 7ers or £600 Lexusen.

Haven't spotted any Phaetons either.

Believe it or not there may be some truth in there.

The guy that designed the conti gt is and inhouse designer rather than from a design house. He was working for Skoda, came up with a concept for the Tudor (two door) which was like a larger modernised version of the Rapid. He got moved over to bently and the concept of the conti GT appeared looking very similar. Maybe he had something to with the Spur design then.

Oh they were listed on the duty free mag on our flight last week.

The point of the V8 petrol to the W12 becomes clearer if one considers that in some countries taxes are put on displacement *and* power.

In Belgium: BIV (taxes on putting the car on the road) has to be paid by every owner when the vehicle is bought. For the V8 it is about 3000 Eur, for the W12 5000 Eur. On insurances fees also take the power output as criteria. Then there is an roadtax to be paid annualy: for the V8 about

1500 Eur, for the W12 around 3500 Eur.

I guess you see why -in Belgium- big engined cars depreciated enormously after a few years. In fact: it will be very hard to find a big-engined car older than 10-15 years. They are exported or broken up.

Let's take a 1995 BMW 7 V12 because some-one of this group bought one. If I were to buy the car in Belgium, before I would have to pay on top of the buying price about 1000 Eur for the BIV, 2500 Eur for the annual roadtax and around 1000 Eur insurance ... which makes the nice total of

4500 Eur (3000 UKP) in taxes before the car moved under own steam.

Each year the roadtax and insurance are due and eat 3500 Eur out of the budget.

Tom De Moor

They were on sale at the DF at both ends of the flight, cheaper than the website price.

No, it's brand new X5s / MLs / Rangerovers etc.

Slightly amusing story.

The bloke around the corner from you. The one with the 9 zillion bhp 22B. You know the bloke :-)

He worked out that his daily driver scooby estate or the Legacy H6 3.0 were costing so much to run in and out of work that he was actually cheaper buying a new shopping blob instead.

So, next yime you see a black C1 or Peugeot *0* (whatever it's called), remember and wave, it might be him. You might get a little "toot toot" back.

snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

A bit posh minicab... I've seen about five or six Spurs on the way out of London today - most of them likely private hire. Not "minicab" enough to actually have a Ken sticker in the windows, but definitely not "owner- driver".