...so young man, what decision did you arrive at and please share your experience...used to have a place in Big Canyon...JimB

 

I can give you some more data points (although everyone here is prob sick of hearing about my Phaeton) - I have a 2005 VW Phaeton with 172k miles. It shares lots of systems with the Continental and the FS. I've owned it for 12 years and put 140k miles on it. It's been very reliable. Never left me stranded. I've replaced consumables (car chews through LH batteries, and of course brakes, tires, fluids, filters, etc.), but nothing much unexpected. This year was a busy one as I elected to refresh the front suspension (didn't strictly need to but it was creaky and I had the $$$), and the right front air bag popped and I replaced both fronts with RMT. Also have replaced the center infotainment unit, a couple of window regulators, headlights and an LED taillight.

It still rides like a new car. No squeaks or rattles. I couldn't imagine a better highway car except for my Continental.

So make sure you get a good car. A cheap one will likely have deferred maintenance issues. And get a VCDS scan of any car you may want to buy to see what fault codes have accrued.

 

How does this happen, this thread is over 4 years old, Matthew made one post and never came back...

 

Yikes - I have no idea. For some reason it was at the top of my feed and I replied - didn't check the date. Wonder why it surfaced...