Renting cars from dealerships is less expensive than renting cars from

"E"Says locals and tourists need to pay more or less same taxi fare. However you need to do the payment in advance after identifying the dealer, being a local that comes default. Hence comparatively the plan is more worthwhile for locals.

Can and Experts help?

E says, for local residents, Taxi fare is same/similar to Dealership or to Firms. So only deciding factor is the actual cost of renting. Which we know from the premise is dealership's. So, to my understanding, it strengthens the idea that renting from dealership is better for locals.

On the other hand B says no taxi fare to Firms. To make this a strengthener, we have make another assumption that
taxi fare + Rental cost from dealership > Rental cost from firm + $0 for taxi ride to firms

So IMO B could also be the answer.
An experts opinion will help.

Best
TheRzS

to my knowledge why option B is incorrect is that national rental firms never charge any rent for the tourist that convince to assume that national rental car charge something form locals so it is not worthwhile for the locals and also beneficial to the locals as well.

so answer should be E,which explain the rent that has been beard by locals is almost same.

Hi Sayantec,
I have one question regarding E, though it says taxi rides to pick up/drop off is no less expensive than national firms.
Maybe, still Dealerships offer low rentals than national firms, we never know, in such case Dealership is not disadvantegous for local residents. So we can't be sure if it is weakening.

am i correct?

Thats the reason why i eliminated E, rather B talks about connection tourists and national firms, but we are looking for connection between Dealerships and (Tourists/Local residents). B is neither weakening nor strengthening, is n't it?

Can someone please explain why E ?

We need to eliminate anything that strengthens the argument.

The author concludes that, "renting from dealerships rather than national rental firms is generally more worthwhile for local residents than for tourists." Why?

• Renting cars from dealerships is less expensive than renting cars from national rental firms.
• But to take advantage of dealership rates, tourists must 1) determine which local dealerships offer rentals, and then 2) pay for long taxi rides between the airport and those dealerships.

According to the author, renting from dealerships is not worthwhile for local residents because they have to 1) figure out which dealerships offer rentals and 2) pay for long taxi rides. This argument implies that renting from national rental firms is more convenient for tourists because they don't need to pay for taxi rides.

But what if tourists did have to pay for taxi rides to utilize national rental firms? In that case, reason #2 is less of a factor (i.e. less of a reason for tourists to choose national rental firms over local dealerships). That would certainly weaken the author's argument. By telling us that this is not the case, (B) strengthens the argument.


Again, the author says that renting from dealerships is not worthwhile for local residents because of reasons #1 and #2 listed above. Reason #2 is that local residents would have to pay for long taxi rides to utilize national rental firms. This argument implies that local residents could avoid these long taxi rides by renting from a dealership.

But (E) tells us that, for local residents, taking a taxi to a car dealership is just as expensive as taking a taxi to a national rental firm. So, based just on reason #2, renting from a local dealership is no more worthwhile than renting from a national rental firm.

Remember, we do not need something that proves that the conclusion/argument is wrong. We simply need something that weakens the argument. (E) goes against reason #2, so it weakens the argument. (E) is the best answer.

I hope that helps!

I think there is an error in the highlighted part.

Shouldn't the dealership be worthwhile for locals not tourists, as stated in the conclusion? it is mentioned that it 'renting from dealership rather than national is worthwhile for locals than for tourists'. So as I understand local gets better deal with dealerships than the tourists does.

Thanks

Since Option E is the only choice which makes Dealerships more disadvantageous for the local residents it doesn't strengthen the conclusion.

I'd suggest go through sayantanc2k's response. You'll get a clearer picture.

Premise:
1. renting price from dealerships is less than renting price from national rental firm (NRF)
2. tourists, if rent from dealership, need to find the dealership and pay for the taxi fee.

Conclusion: dealership renting is more attractive to local residents than to tourists.

Prethinking the conclusion is about the comparison of two attractiveness, 1 for local resident and 1 for tourist. The incorrect answers will tip the weight in the concluded direction, attractiveness for residents is more than attractiveness for tourists while the correct answer will leave the weight balance unchanged or tip the balance in the opposite direction

(A) To encourage future business, many car dealerships drop off and pick up rental cars for local residents at no charge.
Incorrect. This option will obviously enhance the attractiveness for residents.
(B) Tourists renting cars from national rental firms almost never need to pay for taxi rides to or from the airport.

(C) Travel agents generally are unable to inform tourists of which local car dealerships offer rentals.
Incorrect. This option will be another minus point for the attractiveness of the tourists, thereby further tip the weight balance over the local resident

(D) Many local residents know of local car dealerships that offer low-priced rentals.
Incorrect. a extra plus point for resident in the weight of attractiveness

(E) For local residents, taxi rides to car dealerships from their homes or workplaces are usually no less expensive than taxi rides to national rental firms.
Correct. this option leave the weight balance unchanged as the local residents don't extra reason to choose dealership.

E
If cost of taxi ride is same for both national and local dealership then renting from dealership is no longer more advantageous than renting from national rental firms.

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

There are some missing pieces here. The argument concludes that local residents will find renting cars from dealerships (rather than car rental firms) more worthwhile than tourists will. The question says there are four strengtheners (the incorrect answers), so that means there will be one non-strengthener (either irrelevant or weakener), which will be the correct answer. Note that we shouldn’t try to answer this one in advance, because the correct answer could be plain irrelevant. Instead, we should eliminate the four strengtheners and choose the one that’s left.

A) This would strengthen, because it’s a benefit for local residents only.

B) This would strengthen, because it suggests an advantage (for tourists, who are at the airport) of using rental firms.

C) This would strengthen, because it eliminates one easy way for tourists to figure out which local dealerships rent cars.

D) This would strengthen, because it suggests that local residents have an information advantage in renting from local dealerships.

E) This would weaken the argument, because it takes away one supposed advantage locals have over tourists.

Our answer is E

EXPLANATION FROM POWER SCORE

Strengthen. The correct answer choice is (E)

The author's conclusion is that renting from car dealerships rather than national rental firms is more worthwhile for local residents than for tourists. She supports her position by noting that (1) tourists must determine which local dealership offer rentals, and (2) they need to pay for long cab rides between the airport and those dealerships.

The argument has many weaknesses. For instance, if tourists find it is relatively easy to find which dealerships offer rentals, the author's first premise is no longer an issue. Likewise, if the amount of money tourists save by taking advantage of dealership rates outweighs the money spent on cab rides, they may be better off renting from dealerships instead of rental firms. Lastly, if many dealerships are located in non-residential areas, local residents might end up paying as much money to get there as the tourists who rent taxis from the airport.

Because this is a Strengthen question, thinking of ways to weaken the argument will be tremendously helpful in eliminating the incorrect answers: virtually any answer that closes a gap in the author's reasoning will strengthen her argument and will therefore be incorrect. The correct answer will either weaken the conclusion or have no effect on it.

Answer choice (A): If car dealerships provide free drop off and pick up for local residents, it makes sense for these residents to rent there. This answer supports the author's conclusion and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (B): If rental firms provide tourists with free rides to and from the airport, tourists may be better off choosing rental firms over dealerships. This answer supports the author's conclusion and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (C): If tourists encounter difficulties in finding information about which local car dealerships offer rentals, this would strengthen the author's first premise.

Answer choice (D): If the local residents know which dealerships offer low-priced rentals, they may want to explore this option before resorting to rental firms. This answer supports the author's conclusion and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. If local residents pay as much for taxi rides to local car dealerships as they do when renting from a firm, it is unclear why they would choose to rent from dealerships. The special rates might still make it worth their while, but we cannot be sure. Because this answer provides no support for the author's conclusion, it is correct.

There are two ways to not strengthen the argument.
1. Weaken it
2. Neither weaken nor strengthen it

Highlighted text is conclusion.

Renting cars from dealerships is less expensive than renting cars from national rental firms. But to take advantage of dealership rates, tourists must determine which local dealerships offer rentals, and then pay for long taxi rides between the airport and those dealerships. So renting from dealerships rather than national rental firms is generally more worthwhile for local residents than for tourists. Each of the following, if true, strengthens the argument EXCEPT:

(A) To encourage future business, many car dealerships drop off and pick up rental cars for local residents at no charge. - WRONG. Only issue is with the word 'many'. What does it stand to? Otherwise it is good to go.

(B) Tourists renting cars from national rental firms almost never need to pay for taxi rides to or from the airport. - WRONG. It touches upon one aspect of a non-strengthener. But what about dealerships w.r.t. national rental firms as per this option.

(C) Travel agents generally are unable to inform tourists of which local car dealerships offer rentals. - WRONG. In this case tourists are going to suffer. Strengthens.

(D) Many local residents know of local car dealerships that offer low-priced rentals. - WRONG. It is good except the word 'many'.

(E) For local residents, taxi rides to car dealerships from their homes or workplaces are usually no less expensive than taxi rides to national rental firms. - CORRECT. It does not give any reference to what tourists

Answer E.

Why is nobody talking about the fact that - It is very well possible that national rental firms are giving taxi rides to or from the airport for free but the cost of paying and going to the dealership is worth the money?
In that case, B is not strengthening, right?

Also, option E says that for locals the taxi fare of going to rental-firm and to dealerships is the same, but the rental rates by dealership are so good that it is worthwhile going to the dealer.

How come we are choosing the correct answer just based on the taxi fares?
If the argument would have mentioned that convenience/ease of service takes priority over the rental fares then choosing E would have been easier.

Can you please share your opinion?
Bunuel GMATNinja

I'll steal from our previous post regarding (B): According to the author, renting from dealerships is not worthwhile for local residents because they have to 1) figure out which dealerships offer rentals and 2) pay for long taxi rides. This argument implies that renting from national rental firms is more convenient for tourists because they don't need to pay for taxi rides.

But what if tourists did have to pay for taxi rides to utilize national rental firms? In that case, reason #2 is less of a factor (i.e. less of a reason for tourists to choose national rental firms over local dealerships). That would certainly weaken the author's argument. By telling us that this is not the case, (B) strengthens the argument.

You're right that there's no comparison between the money saved on the taxi fare vs. the money spent on a more expensive rate, but that's okay. To eliminate (B) we don't need to PROVE that the argument is correct, we just need to strengthen it a bit. On balance, (B) provides information that strengthens the argument, so it can be eliminated.


And as for (E): the answer choice doesn't say that the cost of the taxi is "the same" -- it says that, for local residents, a taxi to a car dealership is "no less expensive" than a taxi to a national rental firm. This mean that the cost could be the same or more to get to a car dealership, which tips the scales a bit.

And again, to choose (E) we don't need to DISPROVE that locals should go to a car dealership. We don't even have to actually weaken that argument. We're just trying to not strengthen the argument, which is a pretty low bar.

(E) reaches that bar by throwing a bit of doubt on the cost of the taxi.

I hope that helps!

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