Happygo, a car rental company, lowered its prices dramatically gaining

Q: Blank (infer)
Happygo reduced price -> customer increased
railway -> 30% dec in commuters
urban bus companies -> # does not change

A. even at competitive prices, some people prefer buses over rented cars for travelling within cities (is supported by the evidence that urban bus companies reporting the number of customers does not change)

B. commuters using public transportation, such as buses, are far more punctual, on average, when compared to those using private vehicles (nothing is supported of being punctual -> ELIMINATED)

C. to compensate for the market shift created by Happygo's strategy, the urban bus companies lowered their prices as well. (nothing is supported of urban bus strategy -> ELIMINATED)

D. public transportation, whether by bus or by train, is always a compromise for commuters (contradictory because train experienced decline -> ELIMINATED)

E. Happygo's changes have affected the railway companies' revenues due to the latter's relatively low advertising budget (the first part is true but nothing is supported about low adv budget -> ELIMINATED)
Ans: A

The stimulus is :
The lowered price at Happygo(a car rental company) impacted the commuters base of railways, but it could not impact the same for buses.

Note: This could be an "Explain the paradox/discrepancy" problem. But, in the last sentence there is a FIB (fill in the blank) statement - "It seems quite clear that __________" .
An FIB problem can be
1. Strengthen/Weaken - If the blanks starts with "since", "because"
2. An inference problem - If it seeks for the conclusion/summary e.g. clear that ....

Thus, this is an inference based problem.
An inference MUST BE true , based on the information provided. No outside assumption is allowed.

Let's see the choices now :
A. even at competitive prices, some people prefer buses over rented cars for travelling within cities
Do we know that some people actually "prefer" buses or they are forced to pick the buses? No we can't say for sure.
So how can we go to assume it ?
Note the word " ...seems ..."
This choice just TRIES to give a reason for the fact that the lowered price at car rental could not impact the commuter base for buses.
The "preference" seemingly is the one reason.
Thus, the statement stands within the scope of the stimulus and is correct.
B. commuters using public transportation, such as buses, are far more punctual, on average, when compared to those using private vehicles
Don't the buses too come in "public transportation" ? How do we define punctuality? Can't say anything
C. to compensate for the market shift created by Happygo's strategy, the urban bus companies lowered their prices as well.
What action did the bus companies take ( or did not take) is not evident from the stimulus.
D. public transportation, whether by bus or by train, is always a compromise for commuters
It could be a compromise for someone. But, it is too strong tone to say "always" a compromise.
E. Happygo's changes have affected the railway companies' revenues due to the latter's relatively low advertising budget
This reason is not mentioned in the stimulus. No speculations to be made in inference.

IMO A

When we're completing an argument in GMAT CR by filling in a blank, we're always meant to be completing a good argument, because if the answer could complete a bad argument, literally any answer choice would be correct. It's clear the answer here is supposed to be A, but that's a very bad answer to this question. We have no idea if the premise of A is even true -- we have no information in the stem that tells us cars and buses are priced "competitively". Maybe cars used to cost $1000, now they cost $500, and buses have always cost $50. Then even if everyone would prefer a car, the price difference could be large enough that no bus rider would switch to a car even after cars are discounted. Or it might be true that bus riders don't even have the option to rent a car, no matter what the price and no matter what their preference, because they don't have driver's licences. We have no basis here to draw any conclusion about consumer preferences, since the stem tells us nothing about preferences.

There are also egregious grammatical errors in answers A and B, and every sentence in the stem is badly written, so the question is perhaps useful as an SC exercise (i.e. it might be useful to think about how to better write each sentence in the question). It's not a good CR question though.

Hi,

My analysis is as follows:




Suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

A: Correct: Urban bus company maintains average number . It can be said only if it passengers don’t abandon buses in favour of cars.
B : irrelevant
C: new information is given . and it is not necessary it would still weaken or strengthen the conclusion.
D favours the cars ; weakens the conclusion on buses
E seems more like additional information but not necessary information for the conclusion on bus.

Hence A seems the correct answer.

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