DELHI, India — When the Ambassador car was born in 1957 to a newly independent India, it was the height of style and status. It was standard issue to senior civil servants and government officials; its possession implied status, and its ubiquity was a sign of an earlier, seemingly simpler India.
印度德里——当1957年大使牌(Ambassador)轿车在新独立的印度诞生时，它代表着极致的风尚与地位。高级公务员和政府官员都统一配了这款车；它曾是身份的象征，而它的无所不在则让人想起往昔的那个似乎更简单的印度。
The country’s highly protectionist economy also made it one of the few cars on the road, with a singular design that has often been compared to a bowler hat.
印度严重的保护主义经济也让大使牌汽车成为路上少数的汽车品牌之一，这款车的单一设计常常被比作圆顶礼帽。
But that icon of the Indian road may have reached the end of the line, pushed from its dominance by changing consumer tastes, an opening marketplace for automobiles and fierce competition. In May, the car’s manufacturer, Hindustan Motors announced that it would suspend production of its Ambassador, the final stage in a long decline.
但这个印度马路上的标志性车型可能已经走到了尽头，由于消费者品味的不断变化、汽车市场日益开放，以及激烈的竞争，它的主导地位已不复存在。今年5月，大使牌汽车的制造商印度斯坦汽车公司(Hindustan Motors)宣布，将停止生产这种车型，其漫长的衰落过程进入了最后阶段。
As far back as 1999, Hindustan Motors reported a $9.5 million loss from the lone plant in West Bengal, partly because of an outsized work force. In the year ending March 2014, just 2,200 Ambassadors were sold, according to Reuters. In the year ending September 2013, the company reported losses exceeding its net worth.
早在1999年，印度斯坦汽车公司单从西孟加拉邦的一家工厂就录得了950万美元的亏损，这一定程度上是因为工人过多。据路透社(Reuters)报道，在2014年3月结束的财年，公司仅售出了2200辆大使牌汽车。在2013年9月结束的财年，公司录得的亏损超过了公司净值。
In their statement announcing the shutdown, Hindustan Motors cited a “lack of demand” for the Ambassador and a shortage of funds, as well as “growing indiscipline” among factory workers at the West Bengal plant.
在宣布停产的声明中，印度斯坦汽车公司给出的理由是需求不足和资金短缺，以及西孟加拉邦工厂的工人“越来越缺乏纪律性”。
In the 1980s, Maruti introduced the Alto 800, an underpowered but inexpensive hatchback that brought car ownership to the masses. In the 1990s when the economy was liberalized, the Indian car market slowly opened up to faster, more convenient options.
上世纪80年代，Maruti推出了Alto800车型，这款动力不足但价格低廉的掀背式轿车让普通人拥有了私家车。上世纪90年代的经济自由化之后，印度汽车市场慢慢向更快、更便捷的车型敞开了怀抱。
“The death of the Ambassador may have formally been announced earlier last month, but in reality the Ambassador vanished from Indian roads 10 years ago,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, a journalist who owns three Ambassadors.
“大使牌汽车的死讯可能是上个月早些时候正式宣布的，但事实上这款车10年前就从印度的马路上消失了，”印度记者西哈斯·瓦拉德拉简(Siddharth Varadarajan)说。他自己有三辆大使牌汽车。
The virtual monopoly that Hindustan Motors possessed for decades, he said, was the car’s undoing.
他说，印度斯坦汽车公司几十年来的垄断，是这款汽车遭到淘汰的原因。
“There was never any incentive for Hindustan Motors to improve the product,” Mr. Varadarajan said. “They were a highly myopic company.”
“印度斯坦汽车公司一直没有任何动力来改进产品，”瓦拉德拉简说，“这是一家极其短视的公司。”
The company, however, has maintained that the halting of its production is temporary, and that the plant in West Bengal will eventually reopen.
然而这家公司宣称，停产是暂时的，西孟加拉的工厂终将重新运转。
It is the car of Nehruvian India, its white, be-curtained iteration the conveyance of dignitaries including, at times, the president.
它是尼赫鲁时期印度的标志性车型，其车窗配有窗帘的白色款型曾是许多权贵的座驾，包括印度总统。
In this sense, the Ambassador holds the singular distinction of being one of the few vehicles whose mention evokes power, elegance and something pleasingly retro, even as its manifestation, in the form of taxis and government vehicles in Kolkata and Delhi, often borders on disrepair.
从这种意义上说，大使牌汽车的非凡之处在于，提起它来就让人联想起权力、优雅和赏心悦目的复古，而这样的汽车并不多。与此同时，目前仍在行使的大使牌汽车，主要是加尔各答和德里的出租车和政府车辆，经常破烂不堪。
Drivers complain that pedals break off after a few thousand miles, that the air-conditioners malfunction. Some use turmeric to stop up holes in the radiator — anything to avoid servicing with expensive and increasingly rare parts. Many carry water bottles to cool off radiators that frequently overheat.
司机们抱怨大使牌车的踏板在行驶了几千英里后会折断，以及车内的空调失灵。一些人用姜黄粉来堵住散热器上的窟窿——使用一切方法来避免使用昂贵和越发稀少的零件来维修汽车。许多人携带着水瓶，为经常过热的散热器降温。
But the fondness for some drivers, whose cars took them through decades of India’s history, seems to overpower any inconvenience.
但是一些司机已经驾驶着他们的车见证了几十年的印度历史，他们对这款车的钟爱似乎战胜了任何不便。
V. P. Verma, a retired engineer, parks his mint green Ambassador proudly outside his south Delhi home. He said the waiting list for the car when his father, a district administrative officer in Bihar, bought it in 1962 was five years.
退休工程师V·P·维尔马(V. P. Verma)把他薄荷绿色的大使车骄傲地停在德里南部的家门外。他说，他的父亲，一名区政府官员，1962年购买了这辆车，当时的等待时间长达五年。
“To possess an Ambassador in 1962 was like possessing an Audi in India now,” said Mr. Verma. “It was status, prestige.”
“在1962年拥有一辆大使牌汽车，就像如今在印度拥有一辆奥迪一样，”维尔马说，“那是地位，是威望。”
He recalled how they packed the entire family — 14 people — into the car on road trips between Darbhanga, a town in north Bihar, to Patna, its capital. Twenty years ago, the car took him and his wife on a 1,000-kilometer trip from Ranchi in present-day Jharkhand State, through Uttar Pradesh, up to the hills of Almora at the foot of the Himalayas, and did not break down once. Though friends have pressed him to replace it, it remains his only car.
他回忆了他们全家——14个人——如何挤在车里，在比哈尔邦北部城镇达尔邦格阿和首府巴特那之间的公路上旅行。20年前，这辆车带着他和妻子完成了一次1000公里的旅行，从今天的贾坎德邦的兰契出发，途经北方邦，直到喜马拉雅山脚的阿尔莫拉山区，全程车子一次也没坏过。尽管朋友们催他换一辆车，但这仍然是他唯一的汽车。
“It needs a face-lift now and then,” said his wife, Sabine Verma. “But its heart is still strong.”
他的妻子萨比娜·维尔马(Sabine Verma)说，“它需要时不时整个容，但它的心脏仍然强壮。”