Why Are Cars Harder To Fix?
2008年04月08日10:03
上周末，我女儿的雪佛兰HHR汽车(Chevrolet HHR)前车灯烧坏了，我只好帮她更换。我觉得这是件可以自己动手来做的事，于是就去当地的汽车配件店买了一个卤素灯泡，回家后把汽车前盖打开。
Last weekend, I had to replace a burned-out headlight on my daughter's Chevrolet HHR. I figured this was a do-it-yourself job. So I went to my local auto-parts store, scored a new halogen bulb, went home and popped the hood.
经过大约45分钟的埋头苦干，在埋怨多次之后，车灯终于搞定。在更换坏灯泡的过程中，我用了一个管钳和几个老虎钳，把左前轮轮毂内侧的塑胶衬里掀开一部分，取出两种共约6个扣件。然后把手伸进一大堆乱七八糟的电线里，找到坏掉的灯泡，把连接电线拔掉，旋下灯泡，换上一个新的。整个过程都凭感觉完成，因为我看不见自己的手，只能让手在挡泥板内到处摸索，在半掀开的塑胶衬里和车灯旁的电线及金属之间黑暗作业。
Roughly 45 minutes and a few choice words later, I got the job done. In the course of replacing one burned-out bulb, I used a socket wrench and pliers to partially remove a plastic liner inside the left front wheel well. I took out about a half-dozen fasteners, of two different kinds. Then I had to work my hand through a tangle of wires to get at the offending bulb, disconnect it, twist it out and then replace it. I did all this by feel, because I couldn't see my hand, wedged inside the fender between the half removed plastic liner and the wires and metal around the light.
完事后，我不得不把身上穿的全都扔进洗衣机，因为在拆除和重新安装挡泥板内衬时，我一直躺在车底下。
When I was done, I had to toss everything I had been wearing into the wash, since I'd wound up on my back under the car during the process of detaching and reattaching the fender liner.
没错，我读了车主手册上的说明，也是按着上面指示的步骤做的。我只能这么说，手册对于更换灯泡的困难程度低估了一半。
Yes, I read the directions in the owners' manual and did what they instructed. Let's just say the manual understated the degree of difficulty by half.
其实，除了像我这样的业余修车族之外，还有很多人也都在纳闷，现在的汽车怎么那么难修。更换损坏的部件或是修复 坏的汽车的难度日益增大，甚至令修车行业和保险公司头疼不已。
It turns out amateurs like me aren't the only ones wondering why some of today's vehicles are such bears to repair. The difficulty of replacing broken parts or restoring vehicles damaged in collisions is a growing concern to the auto-service and collision trades and the insurance industry.
美国汽车服务协会(Automotive Service Association)车辆碰撞维修部经理丹尼斯?卡斯珀森(Denise Caspersen)说，“汽车的修理难度越来越高。”
'Vehicles are becoming more and more difficult to repair,' says Denise Caspersen, manager of the collision division for the Automotive Service Association.
为了让汽车更安全、更轻、更省油，汽车制造商在车身上使用各种新型材料，如高强度钢、铝、钢塑混合夹层等。这给汽车修理厂带来挑战，因为维修技师现在已经不能断定，他们切割或焊接的是不是传统的钢铁金属。
In their quest to make cars safer, lighter and more fuel efficient, car makers are using more exotic materials in the bodies of vehicles, such as high-strength steels, aluminum, steel-plastic sandwiches. That presents a challenge to body-repair shops because technicians now can't just assume that the metal they are cutting or welding is old-fashioned steel.
现在的汽车配有更多的安全气囊，在车体内部和整个车身也都有更多复杂的电子设备。卡斯珀森说道，修理严重损毁的汽车成了一项复杂的工作，导致保险公司出险车辆中全损的情况日益增加，可修复的情况日益减少。
Modern vehicles also have more airbags and more sophisticated electronics under the hood and throughout the body. The complexity of repairing a badly crashed vehicle has led to a rise in the number of vehicles that are declared total losses by insurance companies, rather than repaired, Ms. Caspersen says.
店面数量排名美国第一的汽车零售商AutoNation Inc.公司固定业务部经理汤姆?凯洛维(Tom Calloway)在一封电子邮件中说：随着无级变速、电子助力转向系统和用于管理各种功能的车载电脑等高科技的广泛应用，对汽车的常规修理可能会“力不从心”。
Tom Calloway, manager of fixed operations for AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto retailer by dealerships, says in an email that routine repairs can get 'pretty serious,' given the proliferation of new technology such as continuously variable transmissions, electric steering or onboard computer networks managing various functions.
在修理混合动力汽车时，情况会变得更加有意思。维修技师不得不到学校去“回炉”，学习如何安全地修理混合动力系统。
Throw in a hybrid drive system, and things get even more interesting. Auto-service technicians are going back to school to learn how to work safely on hybrid systems.
保险公司和修车行业担心修理汽车变得过于复杂，因此在努力说服汽车制造商，把维修简便性做为考虑的重点。
The concern about repair complexity is spurring efforts by the insurance and repair industries to persuade car makers to make ease of repair a higher priority.
美国公路安全保险协会(Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Vehicle，IIHS)研究中心的资深副总裁乔?诺兰(Joe Nolan)说道，一个名为“汽车维修研究委员会”(Research Council for Automobile Repairs)的组织正在规划一个网站，目的是向汽车设计师提供相关数据，鼓励他们在设计汽车时更多地考虑维修简便性。
One group called the Research Council for Automobile Repairs is planning a Web site that will offer vehicle designers data aimed at encouraging them to make vehicles more repair friendly, says Joe Nolan, senior vice president for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Vehicle Research Center.
诺兰说，IIHS并不直接参与汽车维修。但该协会在对汽车保险杠进行测试时，发现车辆维修成本过高的问题。
The IIHS isn't directly involved in repair issues, he says. But the Institute has highlighted the problem of high repair costs in its tests of vehicle bumpers.
汽车制造商往往需要满足顾客各种互相冲突的需求。当更换灯泡或滤油器时，人们希望车子的结构很传统，打开前盖就能看到车身和发动机之间清晰而宽松的排线；但当更换燃油泵，或是想找一个车位时，又会希望排线紧凑，汽车小巧轻便──这就要求车前盖下的各个部件排列非常紧密。
Auto makers, as is often the case, must juggle competing demands. When it's time to change a light bulb or an oil filter, I wish I had an old-fashioned car where you could open up the hood and see the driveway through the big spaces between the body and the engine. But when I go to the fuel pump, or try to find a parking space, I want a car that's light and efficient -- which means all the bits and pieces need to be very close together under the hood.
由于汽车制造商必须要达到每加仑汽油平均跑35英里的新燃油经济性标准，生产紧凑型汽车、降低车身重量的动力只会变得更大。
The drive to reduce weight by making cars more compact will get only more intense as auto makers strive to achieve the new 35 miles per gallon fleet average fuel-economy standard.
尽管如此，汽车制造商仍在对修车行业和保险公司的要求作出回应。
Still, car makers are responding to the service and insurance industry's pleas.
丰田汽车公司(Toyota Motor Corp.)的发言人Bill Kwong在一封电子邮件中说：丰田正在设计一种配备“前防撞盒”的汽车，在车辆发生碰撞后，能把防撞盒卸下，直接更换新的。丰田还在设计一种更易于更换的前车灯。
Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Bill Kwong says in an email that Toyota is also designing vehicles with 'front crush boxes,' which are designed so they can be unbolted after a collision and replaced. Toyota also is designing headlamps to be more easily replaced.
通用汽车公司(General Motors Corp.)服务与配件部的总工程师小约瑟夫?菲兹西蒙斯(Joseph Fitzsimmons Jr.)说道，大约五年前，通用汽车加大努力，在汽车设计流程中将维修简便性考虑进去，为此专门派售后服务部门的工程师与汽车设计团队的设计师和工程师共同工作。
General Motors Corp., about five years ago, intensified efforts to consider ease of repair during the vehicle-design process, assigning engineers from the service operation to work alongside vehicle designers and engineers, says Joseph Fitzsimmons Jr., chief engineer for the GM Service and Parts Operations.
他说道，现在，通用汽车的工程师能在电脑屏幕的设计蓝图上虚拟出一只挥动扳手的手，检测这种设计是否会给维修技师带来麻烦。
GM engineers now can use a virtual hand, wielding a virtual wrench, to test whether a design that exists only in digital form on a screen will result in a hard time for a mechanic, he says.
菲兹西蒙斯说，现在通用汽车公司设计的仪表盘都留有简便的维修通道，让维修技师或自己修车的人能轻松接触到保险丝或其它零部件，而不用把仪表盘整个拆开。
The result, Mr. Fitzsimmons says, is that GM is now designing instrument panels so that there are access panels a mechanic, or do-it-yourselfer, could remove easily to get access to fuses or other components, rather than disassembling the dashboard.
通用汽车也为汽车撞击修复专家考虑，设计出新的大型皮卡货车，其车身能进行分区切割，因此只需换下撞坏的部分。同样，这种货车的前后部均为独立安装，修复时不必更换整个车身，他说道。
For collision-repair specialists, GM designed its new large pickups so that the frames can be cut in sections so that only damaged pieces need to be replaced. The same trucks are designed so that a new front end can be installed without replacing the entire frame of the truck, he says.
菲兹西蒙斯说，对于小一点的车辆，要在更小的空间内实现维修简便性更不容易，但并非完全不可能。
'It does get more challenging when you've got a smaller physical space' in a small vehicle, Mr. Fitzsimmons says. 'But it's not impossible.'
Joseph B. White
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