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

structure is X Verb Y as often as Z

In option C, it is ambiguous.

D is best among all.

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

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..".

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 ?

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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