Talk:VAG

"Volkswagen Audi Group"
According to this account by Bertel Schmitt, a former marketing consultant for Volkswagenwerk AG, there was no official expansion of the acronym "VAG", for legal reasons. To quote: ''So they came up with V.A.G. It could have stood for anything: Volkswagenwerk AG, Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen Audi Gesellschaft, you name it. Intentional ambiguity. But it was highly verboten to say what the acronym stood for.'' Letdorf (talk) 13:23, 5 November 2009 (UTC).

The website I referenced appears to be down at the moment: a Google cache copy can be found here. Letdorf (talk) 13:33, 9 November 2009 (UTC).
 * That reference is a single source, and ONLY reflects German language useage. In English language, "Volkswagen Audi Group" was DEFINATELY used - I've seen many documents/letters from "Volkswagen Audi Group UK" (or similar to that effect) - but these were a long time ago, probably in the mid to late 1980s.  Furthermore, in 'American English', VAG also stands for "Volkswagen Audi Group" - though weather that was formal or informal, I don't know - but whatever, it was widely used.  So in both British English, AND American English - which sort of encompasses what en.wikipedia.org is about, we should be reflecting those English language uses - even if they DO differ from German useage. 78.32.143.113 (talk) 07:42, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * While this is the English WP, we are talking about a German-based international corporation here, and the English-speaking world is bigger than just the UK and US, so we need to be careful not to be parochial. I've had a look at the Companies House records, and I can't find any company with a name like "Volkswagen Audi Group". The current Volkswagen Group United Kingdom Ltd. was registered as "V.A.G. (United Kingdom) Ltd." between 1981 and 1995. In any case, in Wikipedia, verifiability is more important than truth (see WP:V) so if VAG (UK) actually did use the phrase "Volkswagen Audi Group", we really need some reliable source to verify this. In an article like this, it's not really necessary to go into all the whys and wherefores anyway, which is why I haven't given any further explanation for "VAG" in this article. Letdorf (talk) 13:43, 15 January 2010 (UTC).