上海的月亮: CN — LARRY ROMANOFF: 汽车：回到怀旧的一步

汽车：回到怀旧一步 — Autos: A Step Back into Nostalgia

拉里罗曼诺夫

翻译：珍珠

Austin Healey 3000. Source

奥斯汀希利3000。根源

When I was a university student, sports cars were very popular and it seemed that only the British made them. There were various classes of these cars, from simple and basic to luxurious and expensive, but something for everyone and for every budget. None were electric in those days.

当我还是个大学生的时候，跑车非常受欢迎，似乎只有英国人制造的。这些车有各种各样的类别，从简单和基本到豪华和昂贵，但一些为每个人和每个预算。那些时候没有电的。

The first layer consisted of the MG Midget and the Austin-Healey Sprite. Cute, simple, very basic, very slow, and very affordable.

第一层包括MG侏儒和奥斯汀-希利雪碧。可爱，简单，非常基本，非常慢，而且非常实惠。

MG Midget. Source.

MG Midget.根源

Austin-Healey Sprite. Source.

奥斯汀希利精灵。根源

The next layer consisted of the Triumph TR-3, the MG-A, and the Austin-Healey 100. They offered maybe 70% more appearance, performance, and price.

下一层由胜利的TR-3、MG-A和奥斯汀-希利100组成。他们提供的外观、性能和价格可能要多出70%。

Triumph TR-3. Source

胜利TR-3。根源

MG-A. Source.

毫克-a。根源

Austin-Healey 100. Source

奥斯汀-希利100。根源

In a class by itself for elegance, performance and price was the Jaguar XK-140.

在一个为优雅、性能和价格本身的阶级是捷豹XK-140

Jaguar XK-140. Source

捷豹XK-140。根源

Jaguar XK-140. Source

捷豹XK-140。根源

The next layer in time and space were the Triumph TR-4, the MG-B, and the Austin-Healey 3000. Another increase in cute, in performance, and in price. I had an Austin-Healey throughout my university days, and I have to say I dearly loved that little car.

在时间和空间上的下一层是胜利的TR-4、MG-B和奥斯汀-希利3000。可爱、性能和价格的增加。我在大学期间都有一辆奥斯汀-希利的车，我不得不说我非常喜欢那辆小车。

Triumph TR-4. Source.

胜利TR-4。根源

MG-B. Source

MG-B.根源

Austin-Healey 3000. Source

奥斯汀-希利3000。根源

As always, in a class by itself for elegance, performance and price, was the Jaguar XK-E, the envy of everyone.

一如既往，在一个优雅、性能和价格的班级中，捷豹XK-E令所有人羡慕。

Jaguar XK-E. Source

捷豹XK-E。根源

In days gone by, cars were more personal, an expression of one’s personality, something that seems almost impossible today. The range of autos, of kinds of autos, of features and appearance, seems to have been much greater in the past than exists now. Today, to a casual observer, all cars look the same. Any differentiation is almost without appreciable consequence.

在过去的日子里，汽车更加私人，是一个人个性的表达，这在今天似乎是不可能的。汽车的种类，各种汽车的特点和外观，在过去似乎比现在要大得多。今天，在一个普通的观察者看来，所有的汽车看起来都是一样的。任何区别都几乎没有明显的后果。

Think of airlines today. To a casual observer, all airliners look identical, and similarly in terms of passenger experience. I have flown on most every recent version of Boeing and Airbus, and nothing stands out in my mind as more desirable or better than anything else, and as true for business class as for economy. All flights are painful today. It wasn’t always like that.There was a day when flying was a pleasure, with considerable differences in airplanes and features. The old Lockheed Electra was a delight for a passenger. The Lockheed 1011 was a pleasure to fly in, at least in first class, as was the Boeing 747. There are no such choices today. The private jets are a bit better, but they too are becoming homogenized.

想想今天的航空公司。对于一个普通的观察者来说，所有的客机看起来都是一样的，而且在乘客体验方面也是相似的。我乘坐过最新版本的波音和空客，在我看来，没有什么比这更令人满意或更好，商务舱和经济舱更如此。今天所有的航班都很痛苦。事情并不总是这样的。有一天，飞行是一种乐趣，飞机和特点有很大的不同。老洛克希德·伊莱克特拉对一个乘客来说是一种乐趣。洛克希德1011很乘坐，至少在头等舱，波音747也是如此。今天还没有这样的选择。私人飞机要好一些，但它们也在变得同质化。

Autos have gone this same route, where they all seem to be converging into a kind of homogenized, boring nothingness. Private transport is being commoditised in a way that never happened before, and it seems foolish now for auto manufacturers to produce so many brands and so many models of each brand when the only differentiation is superficial. People are being offered hundreds of different choices of the same. It would make more sense for everyone to simply produce a small, inexpensive city car like the BYD Seagull or the Roewe Clever, for one person, one child, and a few groceries. And a second kind of sedan for the family or a group of friends. The vast proliferation of models available today appears increasingly pointless the more one thinks about it.

汽车也走了同样的道路，它们似乎都汇聚成一种同质化的、无聊的虚无。私人交通正以一种以前从未发生过的方式商品化，现在汽车制造商生产这么多不同的情况下，每个品牌的车型似乎是愚蠢的。人们得到了数百种不同的选择。对每个人来说，简单地为一个人，一个孩子生产一辆小型的，便宜的城市汽车，以及一些杂货。还有第二种轿车，是给家人或一群朋友准备的。随着人们考虑得越多，如今现有的大量模型似乎就越来越毫无意义。

It seems that an era of personal transportation is taking its final breath, its time on earth having come to an end. Cars are becoming more like the rental bicycles every year – just a simple commodity with no useful differentiation – and no such differentiation required. It is just a bicycle. Simple transportation to take us from here to there, and be forgotten. There was a time when bicycles were also a reflection of personality with much differentiation among brands and models, but this is gone too, or at least rapidly disappearing.

似乎一个个人交通的时代正在呼吸最后的气息，它在地球上的时代已经结束。汽车每年都变得越来越像租赁的自行车——这只是一种简单的商品，没有有用的区别——也不需要这样的区别。它只是一辆自行车。简单的交通工具，带我们从这里到那里，然后被遗忘。曾经有一段时间，自行车也反映了品牌和车型之间有很大差异的个性，但这种情况也消失了，或者至少迅速消失了。

I don’t believe this trajectory can change now. It may be that this sameness is a natural social progression that cannot be prevented, a kind of natural evolution of personal transportation into a simple commodity. One conclusion is that vast portions of humanity will have to find other methods of personal expression. Either that, or we will ourselves become homogenized with a boring sameness. I fear the latter trend is more likely.

我不相信这种轨迹现在会改变。这种同一性可能是一种无法阻止的自然社会进程，一种个人交通变成一种简单商品的自然进化。一个结论是，人类的很大一部分人必须找到其他表达个人的方法。要么这样，要么我们自己就会变成一种无聊的同质化。我担心后一种趋势更有可能出现。

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).

罗曼诺夫的作品已被翻译成34种语言，他的文章发表在30多个国家的150多个外语新闻和政治网站上，以及100多个英语平台上。拉里·罗曼诺夫是一名退休的管理顾问和商人。他曾在国际咨询公司担任高级行政职务，并拥有一家国际进出口业务。他曾是上海复旦大学的客座教授，向高级EMBA课程展示国际事务方面的案例研究。罗曼诺夫先生住在上海，目前正在撰写一系列的十本大致与中国和西方有关的书籍。他是辛西娅·麦金尼的新选集《当中国打喷嚏》的特约作者之一。家伙对付恶魔)。

His full archive can be seen at

他的完整文章库可以在以下看到

https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at:

他的联系方式：

2186604556@qq.com

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