纽约人在北京

jimbo

今天的澳报登载的文章。

标题是 A foreign resident in Beijing decodes the process of hiring a car and dealing with dents in the bustling capital


作者为 PETER HESSLER


（1）

FOR my road trip, I rented a Chinese-made Jeep Cherokee from a Beijing company called Capital Motors. It was a new industry; even five years earlier, almost nobody would have thought of renting a car for a weekend trip.
But now the business had started to develop, and my local Capital Motors branch had a fleet of about
50 vehicles, mostly Chinese-made Volkswagen Sultanas and Jettas.

They are small sedans, built on the same basic model as the VW Fox that was once sold in the US.
At Capital Motors, I often rented Jettas for weekend trips, and there was an elaborate ritual to these transactions. First, I paid my $US25 ($41) a day and filled out a mountain of paperwork.

(注：从报上扫描成 pdf 转 word 后字体变得五花八门，还有错字）

jimbo

（2）

Next, the head mechanic opened the trunk to prove there was a spare tyre and a jack. Finally we toured the Jetta's exterior, recording dents and scratches on a diagram that represented the shape of
a car. This often took a while; Beijing traffic is not gentle, and it was my responsibility to sketch every door ding and bumper dent. After we documented the prenuptial damage, the mechanic turned the ignition and showed me the gas gauge. Sometimes it was half full; sometimes there was a quarter tank. Occasionally he studied it and announced: "Three-eighths."

It was my responsibility to return the car with exactly the same amount of fuel. Week to week, it was never the same, and one day I decided to make my own contribution to the fledgling industry.

jimbo

（3）

You know," I said, "you should
rent out all the cars with a full tank, and then require the customer to bring it back full. That's how rental companies do it in America. It's much simpler."

"That would never work here," said Mr Wang , who usually hand led my paperwork. He was the friendliest of the three men who sat in the Capital Motors front office, where they smoked cigarettes as if it were a competition. Behind their  smoke, a company evaluation sign hung on the wall:

Customer Satisfaction Rating: 90 per cent;
Efficiency Rating: 97 per cent;  Appropriate Service  Rating: 98 per cent;
Service Attitude Rating: 99 per cent.

jimbo

（4）

"That might work in America but it wouldn't work here, Wang continued. "People in China would return the car empty."

"Then you charge them an extra to refill it," I explained. "Make a standard rule. Charge  people don't obey and they'll have to follow it,"

"Chinese people wouldn't do that!"  "I'm sure they would," I say:

"You don't understand Chinese people!" Mr Wang said, laugh and the other men nodded heads in agreement.

As a foreigner, I often hear that, and it had a way of ending discussion, The Chinese people invented the compass, paper printing press, gunpowder seismograph, the crossbow the umbrella. They had sail to Africa in the 15th century; they constructed the Great Wall. In the past decade they had built economy at a rate never be seen in the developing world.

jimbo

(5)

They could return a rental car  with exactly three-eighths tank of gas, but filling it was beyond the realm of  possibility. We had a couple of conversations about this, but finally I dropped the subject. It wasn't possible to argue with some as friendly as Mr Wang.

He seemed especially the whenever I returned a  damaged car. In the US, I never had an accident, but  was a different story. When I came to the capital and walk around, I was impressed by physicality of pedestrians. I constantly getting bumped pushed. In a city of 13 million learn to expect contact, and  got my licence I realised that cycling works the same way.

The first couple of times I dend a Jetta, I felt terrible; after 'fourth or fifth time, it became routine. I bumped other cars; or other cars bumped me. If there was a dent, we settled it in the street way everybody does in China.

傻瓜满多

真的会是这样？不应该吧？

jimbo

(6)

Once, a driver backed into rental car near the Lama Ten in downtown Beijing. I got out the car, inspect the dent; the other motorist, by way of introduction, immediately said, "One hundred yuan." It was the equivalent about $US12, which was closer to the starting point for a mid- Beijing dent.

When this offer was relayed by telephone to Mr Wang, his response was also immediate: "Ask for 200,"

I bargained for five minutes, untill the other driver finally agreed to 150. Mr Wang was satisfied; he knew you never get what you ask for. And every accident had a silver lining: dents were good business, There wasn't any paperwork for these exchanges, and I suspected that the desk men at Capital Motors sometimes kept the cash.

jimbo

(7)


Another time I hit a dog while driving in the countryside north of Beijing. The animal darted out from behind a house and lunged at the the front of my Jetta; I swerved, but it was too late. That was a common problem; Chinese dogs,like every
body else in the country, weren't quite accustomed to having auto mobiles around. When I returned the car, Mr Wang seemed pleased to see that the plastic cover for the right signal light had been smashed. He asked me what I had hit.

"A dog," I said.

"The dog didn't have a problem, did it?"

"The dog had a problem," I said. "It died."

Mr Wang's smile got bigger. "Did you eat it?"

"It wasn't that kind of dog," I said. "lt was one of those tiny little dogs."

"Well, sometimes if a driver hits
a big dog," Mr Wang said, "he just throws it in the trunk, takes it home and cooks it."

I couldn't tell if he was joking; he was a dog owner, but in China that doesn't necessarily involve dietary restrictions. He charged me 12 bucks for the light cover, the same price as a midsize dent.

未完待述

傻瓜满多

狗的事还靠谱
继续

jimbo

狗的事还靠谱
继续
傻瓜满多 发表于 2010-4-24 22:41

    在中国还租的车时加满油---- 为什么行不通？

傻瓜满多

在中国还租的车时加满油---- 为什么行不通？
jimbo 发表于 2010-4-24 22:59

所以俺也搞不明白呀不是他没说清就是他没听懂

jimbo

所以俺也搞不明白呀不是他没说清就是他没听懂
傻瓜满多 发表于 2010-4-24 23:17

车行的人租给他时油箱为3/8油位，还车时也要这油位，把外国人头弄懵了。

傻瓜满多

车行的人租给他时油箱为3/8油位，还车时也要这油位，把外国人头弄懵了。 ...
jimbo 发表于 2010-4-24 23:29

米国其实也有这样的。

柞里子

今天的澳报登载的文章。

标题是 A foreign resident in Beijing decodes the process of hiring a car and ...
jimbo 发表于 2010-4-24 21:52

这人不怎么懂车么。Jetta 在美国卖得好得很。并不是Fox。 Fox 早就停产了。

柞里子

米国其实也有这样的。
傻瓜满多 发表于 2010-4-25 00:17

94.
这人看来在美国也没租过车。呵呵。
美国租车公司照例在油上敲诈，还车前不加满，必定吃大亏。