The years around the new millennium were a funny time for Volkswagen, mainly due to the exploits of company chairman Ferdinand Piëch. He felt that VW should have a higher standing than it possessed in the mid 1990s, and reckoned that the best way to sort this out would be by illustrating that the brand was capable of building the best cars in the world. This approach was signified by the wild W12 Nardo concept supercar, as well as the Phaeton luxury sedan.
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