This is the second-generation VW Phaeton that never got built:
Much like the horse-drawn carriage with which it shared a name, the Volkswagen Phaeton faded into the fog of history after just one generation. But as Volkswagen celebrates 20 years since the luxury sedan's initial debut at the 2002 Geneva auto show, the company is now releasing never-before-seen photos of the second-generation Phaeton that might have been. Sold in the U.S.
was eventually discontinued globally in 2016. At that point, Volkswagen says, a successor known as the Phaeton D2 was already in the works, but it never came to pass.What you see here is a concept version of the D2 model. At first glance, the "new" Phaeton is characterized by longer, sharper lines than the original, and it forgoes the round, doe-eyed tail lights of the previous generation for narrower, angular ones.