在近期举办的纽约车展上，通用汽车公司（General Motors）正式宣布：全新推出的2013款雪佛兰迈瑞宝将拥有2014年的改款——这至少比原计划提前了两年。通用改变原定的改款计划，匆忙推出改动的工艺和设计，结果让客户们对这辆车大为不满。在这一改款过程中，通用因为一心想提振业绩，很可能放弃了大幅改动。通用北美总裁马克•罗伊斯向《汽车新闻》（Automotive News）透露，此次改款的重点是车的外形，同时简化了“复杂的内饰”。并且他补充道，通用等不到产品周期末期再做改款了，“我们现在就需要改。”

    因此，通用成了最新一家承认竞争激烈、不容有丝毫闪失的汽车厂商。位于美国西岸的设计与营销咨询公司太平洋汽车（AutoPacific）总裁乔治•彼得森称：“鉴于目前消费者都见多识广，再加上大家对路上的汽车都是口口相传、高度关注，推出一款不入流的车将是极其重大、也极其昂贵的错误。一旦消费者知道了某款车的弱点，他们就会弃它而去。”

    本田汽车（Honda）算是返工改款的先锋。当初发现消费者和媒体对思域（Civic）的简配版简直怒不可遏时，它立刻对2013款思域的内饰做了改进。同时，菲亚特-克莱斯勒公司（Fiat-Chrysler）的马尔乔内已证明自己是改款宗师。彼得森说：“赛百灵（Sebring）改款到200是个巨大成功。同样地，道奇Charger和挑战者（Challenger）升级到300在没有花大钱的情况下也做得很到位。这算是克莱斯勒公司很高明的一招。”

    马尔乔内下一个挑战是2014款大切诺基。关于其他车型的改款——有些已公布，有些还只是暗示——请大家接着往下看。

    General Motors recently made it official at the New York auto show: It is giving the all-new 2013 Chevy Malibu a makeover for 2014 -- at least two years ahead of schedule. Customers were so unhappy with the car when it was launched that GM tore up its plans for scheduled updates and rushed some engineering and design changes. In the process, it probably forfeited a good chunk of change that it will hope to make up in lower incentives going forward. GM North America President Mark Reuss told Automotive News that the focus of the refresh will be the exterior and cleaning up "the complexity of the interior." GM couldn't wait to make the changes later in the product cycle, he added: "We need it now."

    GM (GM, Fortune 500) thus became the latest manufacturer to acknowledge that the intensity of competition is leaving even smaller margins of error. "Given how well-informed consumers are these days, and how vocal social media is concerning cars on the road, having a substandard vehicle in the market is a very serious and expensive mistake," says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, a West Coast design and marketing consultancy. "Once consumers learn of the weaknesses of a particular vehicle, they can turn against it."

    The poster boy of do-overs is Honda, which enhanced the interior of the 2013 Civic after seeing how angrily customers and the media reacted to the bargain-basement original. Meanwhle, Fiat-Chrysler's Sergio Marchionne is proving to be the master of the makeover. "The changes to the Sebring making it into the 200 has been a spectacular success, says Peterson. "Similarly, upgrades to 300, Charger, and Challenger have been right on the mark without spending billions of dollars. Very intelligent moves on the part of Chrysler."

    Marchionne's next challenge is the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. For it and other makeovers -- some announced, others suggested -- keep reading.

2012/2013 本田思域

    2012款思域推出后引来舆论一片哗然。由于担心2008年雷曼兄弟公司（Lehman Brothers）破产后消费者会捂紧钱袋子，本田推迟了思域上市时间，采用更廉价的内饰来大幅削减成本。更糟糕的是，外形几乎看不出有任何改变。结果，本田没有像以往一样等上三年再改款，而是只用了18个月就推出了2013款（见上图）。这款车升级了内饰，改良了仪表板，还把引擎盖和后备箱变得更为动感。不过，部分因为小型车销售整体下滑，这款车的销量仍然不及一年前。

2012/2013 Honda Civic

    The introduction of the 2012 Civic produced an uproar. Worried about tightening consumer budgets after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Honda (HMC) delayed Civic's introduction so it could slash its piece costs by substituting less expensive materials for the car's interior. To make things worse, exterior changes were barely discernible. Instead of waiting three years to do a makeover, Honda rushed one in 18 months for the 2013 model year (seen above), upgrading interior materials, refining the instrument panel, and giving the hood and trunk a sportier look. Sales are still running below a year ago, though, partly due to an overall slump in small car sales.

2013雪佛兰迈瑞宝

    今年迈瑞宝的销量下滑了12%，所以通用又回到了设计台前想对它做点改动。不幸的是，通用对迈瑞宝拥挤的后排空间几乎无计可施。当年通用破产时，产品规划师让迈瑞宝和小型车共用一个平台，结果使迈瑞宝的轴距被迫缩短。这么干真够蠢的。现在要让它变大，成本会高得出奇，结果也让迈瑞宝在至关重要的中级车市场上处于不利地位。

2013 Chevy Malibu

    Malibu sales are down 12% so far this year, and GM is going back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, it can't do much with the Malibu's cramped rear seat. Back in its bankruptcy days, product planners shrank the Malibu's wheelbase by putting it on a platform it shares with a smaller car. Bad call. Growing it larger would be prohibitively expensive, leaving Malibu at a disadvantage in the important mid-size segment.

2014吉普大切诺基

    由于这款身形庞大的摇钱树销量开始下滑，克莱斯勒公司缩短了2013款吉普的在售时间，以便能将2014款推向市场。新款吉普搭载了8速自动变速箱，可选装柴油引擎，同时还对前格栅、轮毂、前后大灯做了美化。这款车今年1月开始投产，春季就能上市销售。

2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee

    With sales starting to slip for this big moneymaker, Chrysler shortened the Jeep's 2013 model year so it could rush a 2014 model to market with an eight-speed automatic transmission, optional diesel engine, and cosmetic changes to the grille, wheels, and front and rear headlamps. Production started in January, and the made-over Jeep goes on sale this spring.

2014雪佛兰克尔维特Stingray

    这款车在底特律车展上盛大亮相。作为第七代克尔维特，它看起来简直像棵盛装出场、设计独特的圣诞树，浑身装点着各种曲线、切线和凸起部分。汽车网站Edmunds.com的资深分析师比尔•维斯尼克称：“这种过度装饰让大家感觉有点混乱。这辆车就是一心要设计过头。”有些人已经领会到这种用意了。但奇怪的是，这辆轿跑上原来的后排气管很夸张，但却没有出现在敞篷版上。本来，雪佛兰号称这种排气管能起到冷却的作用。

2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray

    Unveiled with great ceremony at the Detroit auto show, the seventh-generation Corvette looked like a Christmas tree of styling cues, festooned with curves, cuts, and bulges. "The fussiness gives everyone a cluttered feel," says veteran Edmunds.com analyst Bill Visnic. "This is one seriously over-designed car." Somebody seems to have gotten the message. Mysteriously, the conspicuous rear vents in the coupe that Chevy said were needed for cooling have disappeared from the convertible version.

2014吉普切诺基

    吉普的设计师这次抛弃了传统的方形前大灯，转而赋予全新的切诺基酷越车以全然不同的前脸，不免让老套人士颇感失望。《纽约时报》（New York Times）的设计评论家菲尔•巴顿把这套前大灯描绘成“原生态的：像草履虫一样的日间行车灯和像阿米巴虫一样的前大灯。”另外他又补充说：“宽阔的下格栅让人想起近期起亚（Kia）的所谓“血盆大口”设计。”这些话可没法看成是恭维。所以，是不是该对前脸来个改款了？

2014 Jeep Cherokee

    Abandoning its historic square headlights, Jeep designers gave the new Cherokee crossover an entirely different front-end look that dismayed traditionalists. New York Times design critic Phil Patton described the lighting scheme as "protoplasmic: a paramecium of daytime running lamps and an amoeba of a headlight." He added: "A broad lower grille evokes the 'tiger mouth' of recent Kias." Those should not be interpreted as compliments. Time for a front-end facelift?

2014讴歌RLX

    过去几年里，讴歌在设计上一直缩手缩脚，除了那个鹰钩鼻子的前格栅，就没拿出过一套令人瞩目的设计来。而这款饱受期待的旗舰RLX的外观还是老样子，没能改变大家的印象。丹•尼尔在《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal）上对此评论道：“这款车的外形简直像中世纪的手稿一样沉闷乏味。那些犹豫不决的线条让人觉得后侧围板看起来像是在往下垂，使这款车看着像是一座拉着吊索的吊桥。”

2014 Acura RLX

    Acura has been stuck in a design funk the past few years, unable to develop a compelling theme beyond its beak-shaped front grille. The look of the long-awaited RLX, the brand's flagship, did nothing to change that impression. "The shape is as somber as a medieval manuscript," wrote Dan Neil in the Wall Street Journal, "and these wavering character lines induce moments of visual sag around the front quarter panels, making the car look like a suspension bridge that's sprung a few cables."

2014别克君越

    凭借引擎盖上原封不动的标志性镀鉻舷窗，2014改款新君越再次展现了通用这款退役旗舰的风采。遗憾的是，内饰做了简化，而外观整体则一如既往大气优雅。而新内饰是否能拉动销售则是另一个问题。全尺寸的大车卖得并不好，而独立分析师沃伦•布朗则指出，当市场增长并不是建立在坚实的经济基础之上，豪华路线未必能提振销售。别克可以通过取消镀鉻舷窗来验证一下这个说法。这个舷窗自20世纪40年代开始就一直存在至今。

2014 Buick LaCrosse

    GM's retirement rocket emerged from its 2014 design makeover with its decorative hood portholes intact. Too bad, because the interior has been cleaned up, and the overall look is elegant. Whether the new interior will move the sales meter is another question. Full-size cars aren't selling, and independent analyst Warren Browne points out that when market growth does not have a solid economic foundation, better bling may not lead to sales improvement. Buick could test that proposition by dropping the portholes, which have been around since the 1940s.

2014丰田汉兰达

    丰田（Toyota ）家族中像Avalon这样的新款轿车轻易就能赢得“优雅”的称号，但它的SUV却像是《变形金刚》电影里开出来的车型。亲眼目睹汉兰达时，你会觉得自己眼前是辆Tundra皮卡。《汽车新闻》的马克•里希廷写道：“可惜的是，这款车的前脸突出，实在难看。”而呈八字形展开的俗丽的尾灯则使这款车看起来显得矮胖。

2014 Toyota Highlander

    While new Toyota (TM) passenger cars like the Avalon easily earn the adjective "elegant," its SUVs look like escapees from the set of a Transformers movie. Go face-to-face with the Highlander, and you feel you are looking at a Tundra pickup instead. "Sadly, its front end got hit with an ugly stick," writes Automotive News' Mark Rechtin, and the gaudy taillights splayed across the back end make the vehicle look squat and fat.

2014讴歌MDX

    比起前辈来，这款车更轻盈、更宽敞也更省油，整个设计焕然一新，可是绝大多数消费者都无法看出这种区别。就算是MDX最热忱的粉丝也很难在车流中认出它来。批评人士称，2014款就是2013款的注水版。车身线条变得更柔和了，目的是让更多人喜欢它，但相应地，它也丧失了原有的特立独行感。

2014 Acura MDX

    It's lighter, roomier, and more fuel efficient than its predecessor, and the entire design is new, but most customers won't recognize the difference. Even the MDX's most ardent fans will have a hard time picking it out of a lineup. Critics call the 2014 model a watered-down version of the 2013 version. Its lines have been softened to broaden its appeal, and there has been a corresponding loss of distinctiveness.

2015大众高尔夫

    高尔夫的情况也和上面谈到的一样。作为欧洲最受欢迎的车，第七代高尔夫可能是个技术奇迹。但对美国消费者来说，“新”往往意味着“不同”，而这款高尔夫并没有足够多的不同之处让它和老款区别开来，更难以让买车的人改变他们一直对掀背车的成见。由于明年无法按期在美国上市，高尔夫真在美国推出时恐怕表现会更加平淡。

2015 Volkswagen Golf

    Ditto for the Golf. The seventh generation of Europe's most popular car may be a technological marvel. But to American customers, "new" usually means "different," and there is nothing different enough about the Golf to distinguish it from earlier models, much less make buyers alter their long-held views about hatchbacks. Not due to arrive on the American market for another year, the Golf will appear even more ordinary when it finally gets here.

2013林肯MKZ

    除了增加大尺寸的劈波式前格栅并优化仪表板和内饰外，林肯车并没有做更多改款以让MKZ和其出自福特公司（Ford）的前代车型有所区别。Edmunds.com的一位评论家写道：“毫无疑问，从讴歌到沃尔沃，其他每家生产入门级豪华车的厂商都会推一款高级车型。”不过林肯今年的销量已经下滑了24%，因此分析师布朗警告称：“最好现在就开始为林肯的前途祈祷吧。”（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

2013 Lincoln MKZ

    Aside from adding the sweeping split-wave grille and tricking up the instrument panel and interior, Lincoln didn't go very far in differentiating the MKZ from its Ford (F, Fortune 500) antecedents. An Edmunds.com reviewer wrote, "Make no mistake, every other manufacturer that makes an entry-luxury sedan -- from Acura to Volvo -- is selling a superior product." With brand sales down 24% this year, analyst Browne warns, "Better start praying for Lincoln."