March 7, 2002

BY WILLIAM DIEM
DETROIT FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

GENEVA, Switzerland -- Volkswagen AG, which made millions of friends in the United States with a cute, inexpensive Beetle in the decades after World War II, will introduce a $70,000 luxury car in late 2003.

The Phaeton, which goes on sale in Europe this fall, will feature leather luxury inside and a W8 or a W12 engine under the hood. At the same time, Volkswagen will present its Touareg, a sport-utility meant to sell for around $35,000.

"We have to establish Volkswagen in this class," said Steve Keyes, corporate communications director for Volkswagen of America. The Phaeton will be built in Dresden, Germany, in a glass-walled factory so passersby can see the cars being built.

The Touareg will be built in a Volkswagen plant in Slovakia. Named for a nomadic tribe in the Sahara desert, it may be renamed in the United States, said Keyes. He said VW dealers objected to it because the image is unfamiliar to Americans.

The company projects Phaeton sales to reach 4,000 to 5,000 a year in the United States, and the Touareg about 35,000. It showed the Phaeton at an auto show for the first time in Geneva. The Touareg is expected to be shown in Paris this fall.

VW RETHINKING “TOUAREG”
Naming a new car after a tribe of Saharan slave traders may not be the best idea after all. Or so say Volkswagen’s U.S. dealers, who are asking the German carmaker to come up with an alternative name for the new Touareg sport-utility vehicle. The unusual name was announced earlier this year to a less-than-rousing response, especially in the States, where there are few who know who the Touareg are, let alone how to pronounce the word. And many of those who are aware of the Touareg fear the tribe’s historic nature could prove embarrassing in ethno-conscious America. Dealers have hit a responsive chord with VW of America officials, who tell TheCarConnection they’ve asked corporate headquarters to come up with an alternative nameplate, at least in the U.S. That wouldn’t be without precedent: the Golf was once sold in the U.S. as the Rabbit. A decision should be made well before the SUV goes on sale next year.