shasadou wrote:
An automotive warranty claim occurs when a passenger car, sport-utility vehicle, or light truck malfunctions because of a manufacturing defect. A survey of auto mechanics revealed that, for the years 2005-2014, nearly three times as many warranty claims were performed on sport-utility vehicles than were performed on light trucks. It follows logically, then, that sport-utility vehicles are more susceptible to manufacturing defects than are light trucks.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument made above?
A. Warranty claims on sport-utility vehicles are, on average, more expensive to perform than are those on light trucks.
B. Light trucks account for more than half the vehicles on the road.
C. The number of warranty claims for sport-utility vehicles increased steadily each year between 2005 and 2014.
D. Passenger cars account for only 10% of all warranty claims.
E. 40% of sport-utility vehicles involved in one warranty claim required a second warranty claim.
Premises:
Warranty claim occurs because of a manufacturing defect
Nearly three times as many warranty claims were performed on SUVs than on light trucks.
Conclusion: SUVs are more susceptible to manufacturing defects than are light trucks.
Note that the argument talks about the absolute number of warranty claims performed, not proportion. The first thing that comes to mind is that if there are many more SUVs than light trucks, there would be many more warranty claims on SUVs.
We need to strengthen the conclusion that "SUVs are more susceptible to manufacturing defects than are light trucks"
A. Warranty claims on sport-utility vehicles are, on average, more expensive to perform than are those on light trucks.
Cost is not discussed in the argument.
If some people don't claim warranty, they could belong to either category - light trucks or sport utility vehicle.
One factor is cost, another could be laziness, yet another could be unavailability of a dealer close by etc.
Hence, more expensive SUV claims may not be a valid reason to have more SUV warranty claims. And yes, just because SUV claims are "more expensive", it doesn't mean that light truck warranty claims are cheap.
B. Light trucks account for more than half the vehicles on the road.
This means that number of SUVs is certainly less than the number of light trucks. But we have more warranty claims of SUV. So this certainly gives more credit to the conclusion that SUVs are more susceptible to manufacturing defects than are light trucks. Say if there are 40 SUVs and 55 light trucks, we still see 10 SUV warranty claims as against 5 of light trucks. So it seems that SUVs are more susceptible to manufacturing defects than are light trucks.
C. The number of warranty claims for sport-utility vehicles increased steadily each year between 2005 and 2014.
The fact that number of warranty claims for SUVs is increasing steadily doesn't matter. We know that number of warranty claims of SUVs has been higher.
D. Passenger cars account for only 10% of all warranty claims.
Irrelevant
E. 40% of sport-utility vehicles involved in one warranty claim required a second warranty claim.
This has no impact on our argument. Every warranty claim could be counted as a manufacturing defect. SUVs suffer from more warranty claims - whether the claims are on the same vehicle or different vehicles only, doesn't matter. More warranty claims does imply more manufacturing defects, even if they are in the same vehicle.
Answer (B)