【英语科技】豪华车的“免费保养”计划

The hottest new luxury car feature for 2011 isn't a sound system or another 50 horses under the hood. It's something you'll appreciate best when you're not driving: 'no-cost' maintenance.

General Motors Co.'s Cadillac, Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln and Tata Motors's Jaguar have declared in announcements during the past few weeks that they'll offer no-cost maintenance to customers who lease or buy new cars. Lincoln says its offer ends Sept. 7. Cadillac and Jaguar say their no-cost maintenance plans start with 2011 models, which start arriving later this summer.

These brands are jumping on the no-hassle maintenance bandwagon that BMW AG has been riding for more than a decade, and Volvo Cars began promoting last year. There's fine print to be considered -- more on that in a minute. But the flurry of no-cost maintenance deals reveals something about the state of the luxury car business.

Luxury cars aren't created equal when it comes to technology and quality, but they're getting very close to that ideal.

Long ago, the simple things that used to distinguish a luxury car from a plebeian Ford or Chevrolet lost their exclusivity. Leather seats? You can get those on a Chrysler minivan. Tech-savvy connections for your phone and iPod? One of the slickest systems in the business is available on a Ford Focus subcompact. Navigation systems? Sure, the fancy systems built into luxury cars and SUVs are nicer than a Garmin or a Tom Tom. But those portable navigation systems can deliver a lot of information.

The ride quality, handling precision and power available from a BMW 3 series or a Cadillac CTS-V coupe aren't to be found in a run-of-the-mill mass market car. But the gaps in capability among the leading contenders in the main luxury segments -- compact sedans, sport utilities, performance coupes -- are narrower each year.

Luxury car makers now must compete not just over hardware, but over the 'soft,' human dimensions of the customer experience.

Among the first Cadillacs to come with the new maintenance offer will be the 2011 Cadillac CTS and CTS-V coupes -- cars directly aimed at BMW's high performance franchise. 'You don't just buy a car, you buy everything else that goes along with the brand,' says Cadillac spokesman Nick Twork.

This is where 'free maintenance' comes in. Luxury car buyers-- especially newcomers to elite European brands -- had reason to fear that maintenance could put a nasty dent in their checking accounts. The more technologically marvelous luxury cars become, the scarier the thought of paying to fix that technology if it gets glitchy.

'For years, the research has been definitive,' says Dan Creed, vice president of aftersales for BMW North America. 'It's nice to know you will not see a bill for four years or 50,000 miles except for gas and tires. It's both a clincher and it overcomes reluctance' to buy.

Still: 'From a customer perspective my cost of ownership is known to a degree,' says Chris Sutton of J.D. Power and Associates, a market research firm.

In other words, anyone wealthy enough to buy a BMW or a Cadillac or any other luxury car knows the maintenance isn't really 'free.' The cost is wrapped into the price of the car, as a kind of insurance.

One reason BMW and some other manufacturers are opting to eliminate out-of-pocket maintenance costs is that they want the cars kept up properly -- by their dealers -- so that when they come back for resale at the end of a lease, they fetch top dollar as certified pre-owned cars. BMW dealers sold 114,423 cars under its certified pre-owned program in 2009, up 9.5% from the year before and a new record. Sales of these well-maintained, three- and four-year-old cars are a significant source of profit for BMW dealers, and help support resale values for all BMW vehicles.

Not all no-cost maintenance offers are the same. BMW, as Mr. Creed says, covers all maintenance, including brakes and wipers.

Cadillac's 'Premium Care Maintenance' offer doesn't cover brakes, and is limited to 'scheduled oil changes, tire rotations, replacement of engine and cabin air filters, and a multi-point vehicle inspection.'

Volvo has a 'Safe + Secure Coverage Plan' which covers the first eight scheduled maintenance services for five years or 60,000 miles -- including oil and filter changes, and replacement of brake pads and rotors and windshield wipers.

Lexus covers just the first two rounds of scheduled maintenance. Audi prefers to sell customers a maintenance plan separately, with a list price of about $790. Mercedes-Benz followed BMW in 2000 and began offering no-cost oil changes, fluid and filter replacements. But dealers began encountering unhappy customers confused about what was and wasn't covered, Mercedes spokeswoman Donna Boland says via email. Now, Mercedes offers pre-paid service packages dealers sell or roll into leases. 'The sky didn't fall,' Ms. Boland said.

2011年新款豪华车最热门的性能不是音响系统，也不是再加大50马力的发动机，而是在你不开车的时候最喜欢的东西：“免费”保养。

Ford Motor Company
林肯MKT通用汽车(General Motors Co.)的凯迪拉克(Cadillac)、福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)的林肯(Lincoln)和塔塔汽车(Tata Motors)的捷豹(Jaguar)在过去的几个星期内纷纷宣布，它们将为租赁或购买新车的客户提供免费保养服务。林肯表示，这一活动将在9月7日结束。凯迪拉克和捷豹则表示，在今年夏季晚些时候推出2011年款新车时，将开始提供免费保养服务。

这些品牌正在追赶为客户提供无偿保养服务的潮流。宝马公司(BMW AG)在十多年前就开始这么做了，沃尔沃汽车公司(Volvo Cars)也从去年开始推广这项服务。这些服务的限制条款需要仔细研究──这一点我们稍后会具体谈到。但是，各大品牌争相推出免费保养服务反映出了豪华车产业的某些现状。

和普通车相比，豪华车在科技含量和性能方面占有先天的优势，但它们现在已经非常接近“生而平等”的理想状态了。

那些过去常常用以区分豪华车和普通福特或雪佛兰(Chevrolet)的简单特征在很久以前就已经丧失了它们的独特性。真皮座椅？你在克莱斯勒(Chrysler)的厢式旅行车上也可以找到。手机和iPod的高科技连接器？福特福克斯(Focus)小型车上配置了在这方面运行得最流畅的系统之一。导航系统？没错，豪华车和SUV配置的高档导航系统确实比Garmin或Tom Tom导航仪要好，但那些便携式的导航系统也可以提供很多的信息。

General Motors
凯迪拉克CTS-V双门跑车宝马3系或凯迪拉克CTS-V双门跑车带给你的驾驶舒适性、操控精确度和动力体验是无法在大众市场的普通汽车身上找到的。但是，主要豪华车类别──包括紧凑型车、运动型多功能车和双门跑车──的领先者们在性能方面的差距每年都在缩小。

豪华汽车生产商现在不仅要在硬件方面展开竞争，而且还要拼“软件”──客户体验的人性化程度。

第一批参与新的保养计划的凯迪拉克车型是2011年款的CTS和CTS-V双门轿车──这两款车的目标直指高性能的宝马系列。“你买的不只是一辆车，你还买下了这个品牌给你带来的一切，”凯迪拉克发言人尼克•特沃克(Nick Twork)表示。

它不是世界上最棒的车，但看上去像是了。《华尔街日报》汽车栏目的专栏作家丹·尼尔(Dan Neil)测评了凯迪拉克CTS双门轿车。这就是“免费保养”服务的来由。豪华车的车主──特别是欧洲名车的新买家──有理由担心保养可能要让他们付出一大笔钱。豪华车在技术上变得越先进，一旦出了故障，花钱维修的想法也越让人望而生畏。

“多年来，这方面的研究已经给出了定论，”宝马公司北美地区售后服务副总裁丹•克里德(Dan Creed)说。“知道在买车后4年时间内或里程5万英里内，除了汽油和轮胎之外不会再有其他支出，是件感觉很不错的事。这既是个决定性因素，也解决了人们买车的后顾之忧。”

但是：“从消费者的角度来看，我的拥有成本从某种程度上来说是已知的，”市场调查公司J.D. Power and Associates的克里斯•萨顿(Chris Sutton)说。

换句话说，任何一位买得起宝马、凯迪拉克或者其他豪华车的人都知道，保养并不是真正“免费”的。保养费作为一种保险早已被算入了车价。

宝马公司和其他一些汽车制造商之所以选择取消消费者自掏腰包支付保养费用的做法，一个原因就是他们希望汽车能够──经由经销商──得到妥善维护，从而在租赁合约到期后，它们在转售时能和质检合格的二手车一样卖出好价钱。2009年，宝马经销商在二手车销售计划下卖出了114,423辆汽车，比上年增长了9.5%，创造了新的销售纪录。对宝马经销商来说，销售这些车况良好、车龄在3至4年的二手车能获得巨大的利润，也有助于支撑所有二手宝马车的价值。

Jaguar捷豹XJL并不是所有的免费保养服务都是一样的。克里德说，宝马提供对一切零部件的保养，包括刹车片和雨刷器。

凯迪拉克的“优质保养维护”计划不包括维修刹车片，仅限于“定期更换机油、四轮定位检查、替换发动机和空调滤芯，以及多点检测”。

沃尔沃推出的“安全+安心覆盖计划”，提供5年或者6万英里以内的前8次定期保养──包括更换机油、过滤器、刹车片、刹车盘和雨刷器。

雷克萨斯(Lexus)只提供最初两次的定期保养。奥迪(Audi)更喜欢另外向顾客推销它的保养计划，定价约为790美元。梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)仿效宝马，从2000年开始提供免费更换机油、制动液和过滤器的服务。但是经销商开始碰到一些不满的客户，这是因为他们搞不清哪些服务包含在免费保养计划之内，而哪些不包括，奔驰公司的发言人唐娜•伯兰德(Donna Boland)通过电子邮件表示。现在，奔驰推出预先付费的保养服务，经销商可以直接出售，也可以把这笔费用加到租赁费用里。“天并没有塌下来，”伯兰德说。