Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more oft

Question

Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed  the economy this January.

A. Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed

B. Like in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often, if not more often than, return customers and that buoyed

C. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often as, if not more often than, to return customers and it buoyed

D. As in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers, buoying

E. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed

This question is part of the  GMAT Club Sentence Correction : Comparison" Revision Project.

bipolarbear · Accepted Answer

This question is clearly not from an official source since it contains errors, however of all the errors, D is still the best choice.

main structure is X Verb Y as often as Z

I eat pears as often as apples.

First-time buyers buy cars as often as return customers. (This implies that buyers BUY return customers... should be as return customers do)

souvik101990 · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original makes a comparison between car sales in 2004 and this January. However, the comparison is of prepositional phrases, which must be compared using "as," not "like," which is used to compare nouns. ("Like" would be correctly used to compare one year to another, for example, "Like 2004, 2005 was a good year.")

Also, this sentence has an idiomatic error. The idiom “as often as” must be written out and cannot be contracted to “as often.” Finally, the phrasing "car sales to first-time buyers as often as to return customers" is awkward and should be recast.

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice incorrectly uses the comparison term "Like." Also, the idiom “as often” is incorrect; it should be “as often as.”

(C) This sentence uses the correct idiom, "as often as." However, the pronoun “it” does not have an antecedent, as “sales” (as well as "buyers") is plural. Finally, "and it" weakens the syntax and meaning of the first part of the sentence.

(D) CORRECT. This choice clearly compares sales in the two years. The idiom “as often as” is correctly written and is placed in a comparison of actions (i.e., "first-time buyers bought cars") rather than in a comparison of prepositional phrases, which is more awkward.

(E) The idiom “as often” is incorrect; it should be “as often as.”

321kumarsushant · Answer

structure is X Verb Y as often as Z

In option C, it is ambiguous.

D is best among all.

KS15 · Answer

Great Qs Souvik. IMO, B. D doesnt look right coz it is not clear who/what is buoying the economy.

aniteshgmat1101 · Answer

Answer should be D. 
"Like in" is wrong usage since "Like" should not be followed by clause. Here, "Like <it was> in..." is wrong.
"as often as..." is idiomatically correct in this context, not "as often..".
In option C has missing verb error: "car sales.... customers" does not have a verb.
D is having idiom error "as often..".

ChiGMAT · Answer

This is my understanding:

A. Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed  incorrect use of 'like' since we are talking about 'buoyed'

B. Like in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often, if not more often than, return customers and that buoyed  same as A

C. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often as, if not more often than, to return customers and it buoyed  Ambiguous! The sentence means that car sales to first timers buoyed the economy and here is the meaning is unclear because of wrong comparison. Also, 'and' does not serve a purpose

D. As in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers, buoying  Correct

E. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed  should be as...as

chetan2u · Answer

Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed  the economy this January.

A. Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed
 incorrect comparison.. 'as' is required.. as often as is correct idiom

B. Like in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often, if not more often than, return customers and that buoyed
 incorrect comparison.. 'as' is required.. as often as is correct idiom

C. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often as, if not more often than, to return customers and it buoyed
 incorrect..

D. As in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers, buoying
 correct

E. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed
incorrect.. as often as is correct idiom..

ans D

chetan2u · Answer

hi ks15,
in B, like is not required here as the comparison is not between two nouns so 'as' should be correct..
Also in 'as often, if not more often than'... as often is hanging.. the correct idiom is as often as, if not more than..
in D. first timers buying vehicles is buoying the economy and is being correctly reffered by buoying

oanhnguyen1116 · Answer

Somebody helps me clear which one is correct in two phrases: 'like in 2004' and 'as in 2004'?

buan15 · Answer

As in 2004 is correct.
You can use like in the following manner:
"Like 2004, this year also we will experience a very hot and humid summer in Eastern India.

rish2708 · Answer

Hello Verbal Experts,
I did not choose option D, albeit I did not find any option correct. Could you please help me with my wrong understanding about option D:

first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers

Here I can infer two meanings from the sentence:

First time owners bought cars as often as return customers did

OR

First time owners bought cars as often as they bought return customers.

Isn't the sentence ambiguous then? Please help!!

Regards,
Rishav

Posted from my mobile device

EducationAisle · Answer

Yes, but this interpretation would be completely nonsensical Rishav and hence, we cannot interpret the original sentence this way.

krishsaisree · Answer

Hey  GMATNinja :

I've been living by your go literal mantra like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, and it's been of great helps. I've a doubt here:

D. As in 2004,   first-time buyers bought cars as often as  , if not more often than,   return customers  , buoying

Doesn't it sound like First Time Buyers bought cars as often as (they bought) return customers ?

GMATNinja · Answer

Excellent question!

When it comes to comparisons, the main question is whether there's a genuine problem with logic or ambiguity. For example:

"Tim loves tacos more than his wife."

This sentence has two viable interpretations: 1) Tim loves tacos more than his wife loves tacos and 2) Tim loves tacos more than he loves his wife. (If both are true, Tim might want to divorce his wife, and marry a restaurant instead.) So I wouldn't say this sentence is definitively wrong, but it's less than ideal because it's not clear which meaning the writer wishes to convey. If there were another option that said "Tim loves tacos more than his wife  does ," I'd prefer this one, as it removes the ambiguity.

However, if we had "Tim ate more than tacos than his wife," there's really only one possible interpretation: that Tim ate more tacos than his wife ate. No reasonable person would read that sentence and wonder whether Tim was some kind of cannibal who'd devoured his spouse. So this sentence is fine.

I'd say it's the same situation here. Because no reader would assume that first-time buyers are purchasing other customers, the only viable interpretation is that the first-buyers purchased more cars than the return customers  purchased .

Just know that context matters -- we're not evaluating these answer choices in a vacuum. In this problem, every other option has some kind of definitive error, so if you aren't sure about the comparison, but the alternatives all contain a concrete mistake, you'd just have to concede that the right answer may feel less than ideal.

I hope that helps!

parekhmohil · Answer

In the below question, I would like to understand the comparison in answer choice 'D'.
As per answer choice 'D' - First time buyers bought X as often as Y, does it mean First time buyers bought X as ofter as they bought Y ? If so, then the meaning is nonsensical. I request you to explain how the construction of choice 'D' is not ambiguous. Please correct my understanding.

Ilhomjon98 · Answer

Hi, is there someone who can explain why  As  in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers, buoying..

AS  is used here?
Thank you in advance!

Vinit800HBS · Answer

Here, you are comparing something that happened in 2004 and that similar thing happening in January.

Simple example: As in July, It is raining in February.

Hope that helps.

Vinit800HBS · Answer

Please read  GMATNinja's  explanation giving just above for clarification.

nivivacious · Answer

Like can only be to compare Nouns/Pronouns not phrases or verbs or actions so straight up eliminate A and B. You can also take a call with splits here considering its in the 600 level scale where splits are effective. 
A. Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed
B. Like in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often, if not more often than, return customers and that buoyed

We're left with:
C. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often as, if not more often than, to return customers and it buoyed
D. As in 2004, first-time buyers bought cars as often as, if not more often than, return customers, buoying
E. As in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more often than, to return customers buoyed

In C and E if you remove if not more often than from the sentence, the sentence makes no sense so eliminate them
We're left with D - which is the answer

Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more oft

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Like in 2004, car sales to first-time buyers as often, if not more oft

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