Around 1985, Honda came out with Acura

Around 1985, Honda came out with Acura; Toyota created the Lexus; Nissan created Infiniti. These were designed to be the Japanese luxury versions to compete with the European luxury cars. Several years later, Volkswagen came out with the Volkswagon Phaeton (around $85K). Why did Honda, Toyota, and Nissan (all of which wanted to compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW) not call these cars by model names related to their parent company? Why did the Volkswagen Phaeton bomb?