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Akela
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Akela
Appliance dealer: Appliance manufacturers
commonly modify existing models without
giving the modified versions new model
names. Some people have complained that this
practice makes it impossible for consumers to
be certain that the appliance they are about to
purchase is identical to the one they may have
seen at a neighbor’s or read about in a
consumer magazine. Yet manufacturers’
modifications to existing models are invariably
improvements that benefit the buyer.
Therefore, consumers have little reason to
object to this practice.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously
weakens the dealer’s arguments?

(A) Appliances are generally purchased with the
expectation that they will continue to be used
for several years.
(B) Appliances usually carry a model number that
provides substantially more detailed
information about the product than does the
model name.
(C) Appliance manufacturers frequently sell
identical products under several different
model names.
(D) Improved versions of appliances typically
become available before vendors have stopped
selling the older versions of the appliance
with the same model name.
(E) The high cost of product advertising makes
appliance manufacturers generally reluctant
to change model names to reflect
modifications to their products.

Source: LSAT

By POE , i selected D .None of the answer choice was talking about two version of product(old and new) apart from D ..

But it took me a lot of assumptions to reach here.....may be i am wrong with my reasoning ..any suggestion is appreciated.

IMHO:
suppose two electronic product A and B ...
A- older version --may be not supported by company anymore
B newer version ..
now two versions are in the market, obviously people will try to get the version that is supported by the company ...but there is no way to recognize.
so may be ,they will end up with the buying the older one ...
so it will harm the consumer in a way.

Here is how I see it:
Consumers complain that they are unable to distinguish between a new model and an older one. What if they go to the shop and see an older model next to a newer one, both of which have the same model names?
(D) the new products are released before the old ones are sold out, which means that the models are all mixed up, supporting the idea that they are impossible to distinguish.
(D) strengthens the consumer claims and weakens the dealer's argument.
Hope this helps :)

Thanks for the post ..

But my understanding is different on this ::

Argument already says that consumer will have hard time to distinguish the product .manufacturer is no where countering that ....The main point or conclusion is that consumers have little reason to
object to this practice..

Now Why consumer will not object:

1.As per manufacturer ,it will be beneficial for consumer if he/she ends up with choosing newer one ,because updated version will provide a lot of additional functionality .

2.now if consumer gets older one that he/she already admired (as per argument), he /she will have no objection anyway..means any of selection will be fine to consumer...
-------------------------------------------------

we need to weaken above points ....

In my above post ,i gave one probable reasoning that how consumer will effected by this ...
{{{,
IMHO:
suppose two electronic product A and B ...
A- older version --may be not supported by company anymore
B newer version ..
now two versions are in the market, obviously people will try to get the version that is supported by the company ...but there is no way to recognize.
so may be ,they will end up with the buying the older one ...
so it will harm the consumer in a way.
}}}
Thats why hate LSAT question , we need to have multiple level assumptions :twisted:

Any other reasoning appreciated on this ..
Thanks
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Conclusion: Therefore, consumers have little reason to object to this practice.

(D) Improved versions of appliances typically become available before vendors have stopped selling the older versions of the appliance with the same model name.

This one gives us a reason why customers might complain about this practice: it is possible that they do not get the newer version that they read about at consumer magazine and, instead, get the older version that does not have all the required specs.

Best,
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Appliance dealer: Appliance manufacturers commonly modify existing models without giving the modified versions new model names. Some people have complained that this practice makes it impossible for consumers to be certain that the appliance they are about to purchase is identical to the one they may have seen at a neighbor’s or read about in a consumer magazine. Yet manufacturers’ modifications to existing models are invariably improvements that benefit the buyer. Therefore, consumers have little reason to object to this practice.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the dealer’s arguments?

(A) Appliances are generally purchased with the expectation that they will continue to be used for several years.

(B) Appliances usually carry a model number that provides substantially more detailed information about the product than does the model name.

(C) Appliance manufacturers frequently sell identical products under several different model names.

(D) Improved versions of appliances typically become available before vendors have stopped selling the older versions of the appliance with the same model name.

(E) The high cost of product advertising makes appliance manufacturers generally reluctant to change model names to reflect modifications to their products.

Source: LSAT


Why is A wrong?

People are buying not because of improvement but because of other reasons they may have seen at a neighbor’s or read about in a consumer magazine. One thing may even be that they are buying because of expectation of durability of product (Appliances are generally purchased with the expectation that they will continue to be used for several years.). May be the consumer is not sure that the new product is as durable as the last one.

So it gives a new reason why they want old product.

Kindly clarify
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Appliance dealer: Appliance manufacturers commonly modify existing models without giving the modified versions new model names. Some people have complained that this practice makes it impossible for consumers to be certain that the appliance they are about to purchase is identical to the one they may have seen at a neighbor’s or read about in a consumer magazine. Yet manufacturers’ modifications to existing models are invariably improvements that benefit the buyer. Therefore, consumers have little reason to object to this practice.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the dealer’s arguments?

(A) Appliances are generally purchased with the expectation that they will continue to be used for several years. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(B) Appliances usually carry a model number that provides substantially more detailed information about the product than does the model name. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(C) Appliance manufacturers frequently sell identical products under several different model names. - WRONG. Nullifies the passage itself somehow.

(D) Improved versions of appliances typically become available before vendors have stopped selling the older versions of the appliance with the same model name. - CORRECT.

(E) The high cost of product advertising makes appliance manufacturers generally reluctant to change model names to reflect modifications to their products. - WRONG. Not directed in the right direction. Strengthens only if it does anything.

The highlighted text in the passage is the conclusion. The practice it talks about is modification of existing models by appliance manufacturers without giving the modified versions new model names. The objection to this practice is uncertainty of purchase the right appliance as people have seen or read about. The counter argument presented to this by appliance dealer is that do such a thing is only beneficial to consumers. The flaw is that this reasoning deals in a situation where the customer has already bought and getting benefitted by the modified version of the product, when instead, it is about the difficulty of purchasing of the product itself.

So, either an option that points out this flaw is the right answer or the one that identifies how consumers get confused while buying or something else.

Only option D tells us that how consumers get confused while being in congruence to the AD's argument.

Answer D.
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Hi experts,
Option C = "Appliance manufacturers frequently sell identical products under several different model names."

Is option C wrong because the argument talks about selling different products (existing and modified ones) under the same model name whereas this option talks about totally different thing which is selling identical products under different model names, thus, C becomes irrelevant to us.

Please let me know if this is the correct reasoning to reject this.
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