I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States


For the 7% of people picking B.

hypothetically, according to this answer, the production facility that produces US air conditioners "outside the US" could be in Japan, which would not resolve the paradox because they would be from the same place.

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.

II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair - CORRECT. This is required to understand the reason behind better reliability of Japanese manufactured room ACs, but, it is not without the assumption that US manufactured ones require more numbers of repair, which we can't conclude from the given argument.

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States - WRONG. Not sure if they are located in Japan, but even if they are, the comparison is between ones that are manufactured by US manufacturers and those that are manufactured by Japanese. However, what if some are located at places other than Japan and US. More importantly how ACs by Japanese manufacturers are more reliable than ACs by US manufacturers. This one does not helps but looks so at first read.

(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan - WRONG. Nothing's there.

(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan - WRONG. This makes us believe that even after with more experience in manufacturing US manufacturers' ACs have only 15 years of average lifetime. This makes us think that US ACs are not that reliable but a longer experience doesn't guarantee better reliability - it can be a business function also.

(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers - WRONG. A deceiver for a correct answer.

A is not fully acceptable as i see it.

Answer A.

No such assumptions are needed to be made.

Statements say although life of both products are the same, why is the Japanese product considered more reliable?
Option A answers this by saying reliability depends on how many repairs the product needs during its lifetime and not just how long the life of the product is.

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Whether an assumption or an inference has to be made, it is sure that one of them is require for A to be correct. I might be wrong to say it as an assumption but that's the necessary requirement here.

Otherwise the argument is no big deal and i guess POE is better an approach in this case.

Option A says Reliability--> no. of repairs
And the question type is "resolve the paradox"
This does help resolve the paradox right? The option NEVER says that no. of repairs (US) < no. of repairs (Japan).
We are very well in our right to choose no. of repairs (US) > (Japan) as this resolves the paradox.
I see no fault with this question.

Certainly we can't find faults with official questions.
But don't you think if number of repairs are more for Japanese manufacturer then it raises questions whether Japanese ACs are reliable.
The highlighted text, as you said, would only make things complex, not resolve.

I would have liked option A more had it mentioned that repairs are the only measure to know reliability.

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