Life has been no smooth driving adventure as far as anything the Germans have manhandled this year. From the government to industry to the average Frau und Herr tryin to navigate the economy and roiled social waters, Germany’s been a bumpy ride to nowhere lately.
Nothing illustrates that better than the fall of a German icon. Decades ago, Volkswagen made up a goofy German sounding word to describe what driving their cars was supposed to be like: Fahrvergnügen.
…A portmanteau of fahren (“to drive”) and Vergnügen (“pleasure”), the term adds up to “driving pleasure,” but to U.S. audiences at least, it was just a nonsense word which was fun to say. As auto publication Hemmings attests, the word “became a cultural catchphrase.”
They built all sorts of fun advertising around it, even with ubiquitous boxy 90s cars at the center.
The problem was they were still VWs and the company had problems selling cars in the early to mid part of the 90s regardless of what they did. But dang if the snappy little word with its limber stick figure didn’t catch on. Those stickers were everywhere, and, more…
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