The internet has shown what the most luxurious Volkswagen in history could have looked like – the Zephyr sedan, created in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz. Enthusiasts from Carbreeding recalled this little-known project, having restored the appearance of the car that never saw mass production.
In the early 1990s, Volkswagen contemplated entering the premium segment – long before the Phaeton model appeared. At that time, the Wolfsburg-based concern was collaborating with Mercedes-Benz within an experimental project under the codename VW Zephyr. The name was not chosen by chance: Zephyr is a warm, humid western wind blowing from the Atlantic.
Mercedes provided the platform and body from the legendary W126 S-Class, and Volkswagen engineers developed their own front-end design, engines, and transmission. The car was planned as a kind of “people’s S-Class” – prestigious but simpler in price and technology. The interior was intended to have a restrained, almost minimalist style, and externally the Zephyr had an appearance that combined the solidity of Mercedes and the signature features of Volkswagen – in particular, a high grille and square headlights reminiscent of the concern’s subsequent models.
However, in 1991, Volkswagen management halted the program. The reason was obvious – a premium sedan under the VW brand could compete with its own Audi models, which were already building the brand’s reputation in the business class.
Interestingly, some of the Zephyr’s design ideas did not disappear without a trace. A few years later, they were used in creating the front end of the Volkswagen LT commercial van (1996). Thus, even an unrealized project left its mark on the brand’s history.
Today, this “hybrid” of Mercedes and Volkswagen looks like an amazing experiment of two worlds – German reliability and engineering perfectionism. The Zephyr could have become the very car that was ahead of its time and would have laid the foundation for the future Phaeton. But history decided otherwise, leaving us only renders and memories of what the most luxurious Volkswagen of all time could have been.