经济学人下载:房车走俏 中国市场成主要推动力(上)

Business
商业

Recreational Vehicles: On the road
房车：启程

An all-American product finds new takers.
全美流行的成品找到了新买家。

Early spring is the main selling season for recreational vehicles (RVs) and the phone on Tom Troiano's desk has been ringing incessantly.
早春时节，是房车交易的黄金时段，在这个时候，Tom Troiano桌面上的手机也响个不停。

The owner of Continental RV, a dealership in Farmingdale, a village on Long Island, Mr Troiano is on track to sell more RVs this year than in any othersince the early 2000s.
Tom Troiano是在美国长岛一个村庄——法明代尔(Farmingdale)的大陆房车(Continental RV)的经销商，Troiano先生预计今年出售的房车可能会比从21世纪以来任何一年卖得都要多。

Buoyed by cheap financing, rising wages and inexpensive gas, travellers are once again splurging on big-ticket camper vans.
财政压力减少，工资上涨再加上廉价的天然气，这使得旅客们又开始了花大价钱购买房车

RVs are a quintessentially American invention: more than two-thirds are made in the United States.
美国是房车的起源地，而且世界上超过三分之二的房车是美国制造。

Nationally, sales surged to 430,000 units last year, a 40-year high.
去年，房车在全国销售额猛增至43万台，创四十年新高。

At the inexpensive end they sell for as little as $5,000 for a caravan; deluxe versions cost up to $1m and are typically equipped with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom that are bigger than in many European flats.
下至最便宜如大篷车，只卖五千美元，上至豪华版，价格高达100万美元，这种豪华版房车通常配有一个卧室，厨房和浴室，比许多欧洲公寓都大。

The share prices of Thor Industries, the biggest RV-manufacturer in America, and Winnebago, the third-largest, have risen by 43% and 17%, respectively, in the past year.
美国最大的房车制造商Thor Industries和第三大的Winnebago的股价在过去一年中分别上涨了43%和17%。

That is a big change.
这是一个很大的转变。

During the 2008-09 recession, notes Mr Troiano, RV dealerships everywhere closed down, leaving his shop among the very few left serving the New York metropolitan area.
Troiano先生指出，在2008-09年的经济衰退期间，各地的房车经销商都倒闭了，而他的店铺是少数留在纽约这个大都市店铺中的一个。

The current rebound is mostly owing to the economy's recovery, but it also springs from the fact that new types of customer are embracing the lifestyle.
这一次的反弹主要是由于经济复苏，同时也是由于涌现出了许多接受这一种生活方式的新型客户。