Volkswagen Moving to Top-Down Design with Phaeton as Flagship

New head of VolkswagenVolkswagenGermany, 1938 > present98 models
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brand design Klaus Bischoff does not like the way that VWs have been designed in the recent past. He believes that brands need a strong design at the top that all of its other cars are inspired by. The first car to use this new design ethos will be the next generation VW PhaetonVolkswagen PhaetonGermany, 2002 > present37 versions
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. 

Current Volkswagen design revolves around the GolfVolkswagen Volkswagen Golf Gen.7 [VII]Germany, 2012 > present363 versions
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. The smaller PoloVolkswagen Polo Gen.5Germany, 2009 > present247 versions
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and UpVolkswagen Up! Gen.1Germany, 2011 > present107 versions
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clearly take their inspiration from there, but even larger models do as well. Bischoff plans to replace that with a strong top-down design aesthetic that will have each market segment be inspired by a single model. 

“Using a bottom-up design strategy didn’t work. Flagship models like the Phaeton should act as halo products and influence the way the other cars in the range look, rather than the other way round. There will be a specific look for saloons, one for our SUVs, one for the people carriers and one for our hatchbacks,” said Bischoff.

Volkswagen plans to show the new Phaeton, which is still on sale in Germany,  in 2014 and put it on sale in 2015.

Source: Auto Express