Being a fan of VW/Audi vehicles, I was delightfully surprised to read BlueAnt's preference to Volkswagens. I'm curious to know why Gibson chose the Phaeton? The VW luxury vehicle (a less expensive version of the Audi A8) failed in the US. Any thoughts?

I'm fairly sure he's VW aware. I seem to recall him mentioning somewhere that he's a Passat driver. And the Phaeton is like a stealth luxury supercar, which would make it Blue Ant suitable. The non-ostentatious-ness of it is probably why it did so poorly in North America.

WG prefers to write about things he knows something about. If he drives a VW (since the famous Jetta) and uses Apple computers, what are the main characters going to use?

I think that it has something to do with WG's tendency to keep away from the steriotypical. Also the fact that a lot of north Americans probably have never heard of the Phaeton and will be more inclined to Google it. If they were BMW 7's or Audi A8's they would be instantly recognized, and then dismissed as being normal and thus less interesting.

Product placement. I think that after he got a free jacket for its materialization in PR he thought he'd go big time and try for a serious ride upgrade...

I love the idea of product placement!

Martin, as far as why it didn't do so well in the US, I don't think it's fair to attribute it's poor performance to "non-ostentatious-ness." It was more likely that the Phaeton was in many respects a direct competitor with another VW brand, the Audi A4. The A4 was firmly established in that space in the US, and no one could figure out why VW wanted to compete with itself. It would be very similar to finding an $75 dollar CHAPS polo.

You are confusing your Volkswagens. The Passat competes with the A4, the Phaeton competes with the A8, a much different, smaller market. And where traditional names (Merc, Beemer) still hold more weight than actual performance.

Agreed. Not many Phaeton here in the UK either. More the Lexus, BMW and Porsche hybrids.

I loved Spook Country and I love my VW. Hence, I was easily pleased. My '89 T3, Lady 3Jane:

Product placement... VW paid the publisher x amount to be used x number of times

quote:

Originally posted by petebertine:
Product placement... VW paid the publisher x amount to be used x number of times

So Fing what? They are real objects in the real world. People use them. Sorry about your phobia, pal. Cognitive behavioral therapy may help.

quote:

Originally posted by petebertine:
Product placement... VW paid the publisher x amount to be used x number of times

And it works - I'm putting down the desposit on a new Jetta as we speak!

quote:

Originally posted by petebertine:
Product placement... VW paid the publisher x amount to be used x number of times

x=0

or you might want to work on your algebra if you really think VW is paying Penguin/WG for product placement!

You need two variables, troll!

I want to know who's paying petebertine to post all this crap about product placement...

quote:

Originally posted by mikethecat:
I love the idea of product placement!

Martin, as far as why it didn't do so well in the US, I don't think it's fair to attribute it's poor performance to "non-ostentatious-ness." It was more likely that the Phaeton was in many respects a direct competitor with another VW brand, the Audi A4. The A4 was firmly established in that space in the US, and no one could figure out why VW wanted to compete with itself. It would be very similar to finding an $75 dollar CHAPS polo.

America(ans) has/have a history of wanting to let everyone know, when they dump a non-metric assload of money on a purchase. A Phaeton doesn't have that look, instead registering on the brain as a steroidal Passat.

quote:

Originally posted by martin:

quote:

Originally posted by mikethecat:
I love the idea of product placement!

Martin, as far as why it didn't do so well in the US, I don't think it's fair to attribute it's poor performance to "non-ostentatious-ness." It was more likely that the Phaeton was in many respects a direct competitor with another VW brand, the Audi A4. The A4 was firmly established in that space in the US, and no one could figure out why VW wanted to compete with itself. It would be very similar to finding an $75 dollar CHAPS polo.

America(ans) has/have a history of wanting to let everyone know, when they dump a non-metric assload of money on a purchase. A Phaeton doesn't have that look, instead registering on the brain as a steroidal Passat.

I don't think you can limit this claim to just America, if you look at the sales figures for luxury brands worldwide Russia, India, and Asia are doing pretty well.

However I do think that this was a marketing problem for VW. When you thought of that level of luxury, you thought Audi, BMW, etc. When you thought of VW you thought of Bugs (and dirty hippies, but that may be just me). It was their marketing, so I think it was their screw up.

I have no idea whether the Phaeton tanked in any of the Ex-Soviet markets, or not.

quote:

Originally posted by martin:
I have no idea whether the Phaeton tanked in any of the Ex-Soviet markets, or not.

I don't either, but the success or failure of the Phaeton in the Ex-Soviet markets wasn't my point. However you may have gotten my point and your reply was supposed to be funny or something. If that was the case I apologize, but I totally didn't get it.

And no, I'm not trying to be a smart mouth, but I'm not sure what you meant with this post.

quote:

Originally posted by mikethecat:

quote:

Originally posted by martin:
I have no idea whether the Phaeton tanked in any of the Ex-Soviet markets, or not.

I don't either, but the success or failure of the Phaeton in the Ex-Soviet markets wasn't my point. However you may have gotten my point and your reply was supposed to be funny or something. If that was the case I apologize, but I totally didn't get it.

And no, I'm not trying to be a smart mouth, but I'm not sure what you meant with this post.

I *think* I got your point. I have no idea whether the very conservative Phaeton did poorly in all of the markets where wealth seems to equal "conspicuous consumption".

quote:

Originally posted by martin:

quote:

Originally posted by mikethecat:

quote:

Originally posted by martin:
I have no idea whether the Phaeton tanked in any of the Ex-Soviet markets, or not.

I don't either, but the success or failure of the Phaeton in the Ex-Soviet markets wasn't my point. However you may have gotten my point and your reply was supposed to be funny or something. If that was the case I apologize, but I totally didn't get it.

And no, I'm not trying to be a smart mouth, but I'm not sure what you meant with this post.

I *think* I got your point. I have no idea whether the very conservative Phaeton did poorly in all of the markets where wealth seems to equal "conspicuous consumption".

Horray you did! I don't know the sales figures either, but I just didn't want to come across as a jerk. There was a lot of fireworks in "The Nonbelievers" thread and I didn't want to accidentally step into the same thing here.

What I think is really cool is that I had just read a couple of business articles about both "stealth wealth" and slow fashion (modeled after the slow food movement). So I was super impressed the WG included that concept in the book. It meant that he was thinking about that issue long before the press was.

Geez, don't sound so surprised...