It's a German compound word that means something like 'driving zest' or
'driving pleasure'.

Anyway, 'fahren' means to drive, hence the 'fahr', and 'vergnugen' means
pleasure or zest.  There's a commonly used German phrase 'Viel Vergnugen'
that loosely translated means 'Have a Good Time.'  Fahrvergnugen is nothing
new, except to some non-German speaking folk.

As a side note, the little driver in the vanagon.com logo came from the
'fahrvergnugen' symbol in the VW ad campaign from the late 80s, early 90s.

Chris.

----- Original Message -----
From: Rachel Cogent <cogent@GNTECH.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2001 9:11 AM
Subject: What is Fahrvergnugen?

> I have a sticker on my rear window it says FAHVERGNUGEN, so I wondered
what
> it means.
>
>
> June 1992
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dear Tom and Ray:
>
>
> What is Fahrvergnugen? No one we know has any idea, including one who
speaks
> German. We're beginning to think it's a made-up word and doesn't mean
> anything. Debbie
>
> Ray: Farhvergnugen is the slogan Volkswagen started using in its
> advertisements a couple of years ago. When we first saw it, we thought it
> was German for "precipitous decline in U.S. sales."
>
> Tom: But after checking with three prominent gastroenterologists and the
> doorman over at the German Consolate, we've determined that it actually
> translates to "the pleasure of driving."
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Credit:
> http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Archive/1992/June/07.html
>