常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

Big-Ticket Engineering at a Deep Discount

dieselを燃料としたGolf TDI。日本での販売は未定ですが,ガソリン価格の高騰を受け非常に魅力を感じ始めました。
見出しのbig-ticketは「高額な」という意味の形容詞で,ここでは「良質の自動車技術」と解釈できます。また,deepは「深い」という意味ですが,加えて押さえておきたいのが「(削減が)大幅な」という意味(『スーパー・アンカー英和辞典』第4版,学研教育出版)。以上から「最高のテクノロジーがかなり割安な値段で(手に入る)」と解釈できます。(Koyamamoto)

Big-Ticket Engineering at a Deep Discount
2015 Volkswagen Golf TDI and 1.8T Review
Taking account of its gasoline, diesel and high-performance GTI variants, the latest Golf highlights Volkswagen engineering at its best. A Euro-sporty hatchback that the world has long embraced, the Golf helped VW to sell five million cars in the first half of 2014, sneaking past General Motors and barely trailing Toyota as the global sales leader.
But like soccer in some quarters, the Golf’s virtues have largely been lost on Americans. Here, the Golf has played the sporty German underdog to dependable Asian appliances, and — before they got serious about small cars — cheap disposables from the Detroit Three.
For decades, the hatch-only body style has been the Golf’s main obstacle here. Americans have stubbornly resisted liftgates, unless they came attached to the soaring hulls of S.U.V.s. But people are finally wising up to the do-it-all virtues of hatchbacks, including Golf rivals like the Ford Focus and Mazda 3.
And today’s small crossover utilities, so popular with Americans, are essentially hatchbacks on tiptoes.
But no crossover, and no hybrid for that matter, can do what I managed in the new diesel-power Golf TDI: 60.6 miles per gallon over 75 highway miles along the Jersey Shore. That’s my personal highway m.p.g. record for any American-market car I’ve tested, including the Toyota Prius.
In stark contrast to a Prius, a car in which I feel my life force oozing away with every mile, the VW isn’t a sluggish chore to drive. The Golf is richly designed and executed, and it is economical and fun to drive even when you’re running to the drugstore for a prescription.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/automobiles/autoreviews/2015-volkswagen-golf-tdi-and-1-8t-review.html?hpw&rref=automobiles&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0#