買車純粹是無用功？

買車純粹是無用功？

私家車一直以來對(duì)于許多人而言是出行必不可少的工具。然而在城市人口和車輛增長造成大規(guī)模交通擁堵的今天，買車原本應(yīng)帶來的便利與快捷幾乎已經(jīng)被壓榨殆盡。無論從環(huán)保、生活壓力亦或是經(jīng)濟(jì)方面考慮，買車似乎都不再是最佳選擇，公共軌道交通和線上叫車服務(wù)的發(fā)展正在逐漸使私家車的存在必要降低。買車是否真的已經(jīng)失去意義？

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí)：

haggle 討價(jià)還價(jià)

undercut 廉價(jià)出售

commission 傭金

emission 氣體排放物

depreciation 貶值

hassle 麻煩的事情

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Why buying a car makes no sense（787words）

By Michael Skapinker

* * *

The news this week that James Hind, 28, has raised ￡5.9m to launch Carwow, an online vehicle marketplace, took me back to the day when I bought a new car over the internet.

It was 2003, when Mr Hind was still a schoolboy, but, even then, Sir Richard Branson was declaring the whole business of going to a dealership and haggling with a salesman outdated.

By reimporting UK-assembled cars that had previously been exported to Cyprus, Virgin Cars was able to undercut the dealers. You chose a car online, made a payment and picked up your vehicle at an out-of-town garage.

The catch? There wasn’t one. When the car alarm went off for no reason, Virgin Cars sent someone around to fix it. And the Honda Civic, still running, if a little chipped and bumped, has not given a moment’s trouble since then.

So when it finally dies, will I buy a new car online? No. Virgin Cars is no longer around. Shortly after I bought mine, Sir Richard decided to get out of the business. Only 7,000 people were buying his vehicles annually, compared with hoped-for figures of over 50,000.

Carwow, which comes after US online sites such as Cars Direct, works differently from Virgin Cars. The company sends your online car preferences to 1,000 dealers, who contact you with their best offers, pay

Carwow a commission and then sell to you directly.

I won’t be using them either. I can no longer see a reason to buy a car. It makes no sense. There are greener, less stressful and cheaper alternatives.

Start with the stress. In most cities, driving is horrible. It is stop-start, boring and bad-tempered.

Many people say they drive because they do not like being crushed against other sweaty, disagreeable commuters. I have driven and I have commuted. Fellow passengers are a great deal more civilised than other drivers — and their odours are less offensive than the emissions you inhale in a car.

In many cities today, there really is no need for a car. Public transport and walking can get you almost everywhere you need to go. It is healthier and it is greener. In London, I don’t drive for weeks, or sometimes months, at a time. (Others have taken to bicycles. I do not regard them as healthier — certainly not in London.)

Do not listen to anyone who tells you London’s transport is unreliable. I have taken the Northern Line, London Underground’s supposed “misery line”, twice every working day for 24 years. It lets me down two or three times a year.

Compare that to the hours drivers spent trapped by roadworks, diversions, or other cars. There is nothing convenient about driving.

In most European and many Asian and US cities, it is far quicker and easier to get around without a car. There are apps to tell you when the trains and buses are leaving. And there are apps to get you a car when you really need one.

In a blog post last year, Kyle Hill, chief executive of Home Hero, which provides carers for the elderly, explained why he had sold his Lexus and decided to do without a car — in Los Angeles.

He said he cycled on journeys up to five miles. For anything longer he used Uber. He calculated it was cheaper than running a car, with its purchase payments, interest, depreciation, insurance, petrol, maintenance and taxes.

And do not, he said, forget parking. At a recent dinner in New York, someone told me he paid $500 a month to park in his apartment building. When I expressed astonishment, everyone else chipped in that that was cheap.

A New York Times article in September said that the average residential parking space in Manhattan cost $136,052 to buy, and that some were selling for up to $1m. A secure underground parking space in Knightsbridge, London cost ￡350,000, the paper said.

Those are extreme prices, but all parking is a hassle, as are parking tickets.

There may be people who really cannot manage without a car: those who live in the country, for example, where there are no good bus services.

But the majority of us are city dwellers, and even in those places without good public transport, there will soon be online taxi services, if there aren’t already.

Some will say that none of this matters because cars will soon be self-driving. If so, that is another reason not to buy one you have to drive yourself, whether from a dealer or online.

請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. Why did Sir Richard decided to get out of the business of online car-selling?

a. His company has gone broken

b. The competitors are too strong

c. The customers are less than expected

d. Loss of market share

2. Which of the following company mentioned by the author does not sell cars online?

a. Carwow

b. Virgin Cars

c. CarsDirect

d. HomeHero

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards buying a car?

a. Disapproving

b. Positive

c. Approving

d. Content

4. Which of the following reasons for not buying a car is not mentioned by the author?

a. Taking public transport is more convenient

b. Most people are not city dwellers

c. Running a car costs a lot

d. Parking is a hassle

[1] 答案c. The customers are less than expected

解釋：文章第五段最后講到了每年只有7,000人購買他銷售的車輛，而非原本希望的超過50,000人，即顧客遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)少于預(yù)期值。

[2] 答案d. HomeHero

解釋：文章中作者提到HomeHero是家庭護(hù)理服務(wù)平臺(tái)，為老人提供護(hù)工，而其他三個(gè)選項(xiàng)都是在線汽車銷售平臺(tái)。

[3] 答案a. Disapproving

解釋：文章中作者列舉了數(shù)條自己不會(huì)再次購買新車的原因，顯然他認(rèn)為買車對(duì)大部分人來說是沒有必要的，可以看出他對(duì)買車的態(tài)度是不贊成。

[4] 答案b. Most people are not city dwellers

解釋：倒數(shù)第三段和倒數(shù)第二段提到對(duì)于city dwellers而言，買車是不必要的，而對(duì)于住在城市外圍的人們來說，對(duì)車的需求相對(duì)更強(qiáng)，因此非city dwellers不能作為拒絕買車的理由。