While sales of other highly fuel-efficient automobiles are in decline,

(A) The Hydro is the most popular highly fuel-efficient automobile available.
>> out of scope as we're talking about environmental impact

(B) The Hydro is recognizable as environmentally friendly in a way that its competitors are not.
>> using the negate rule for assumption questions, if this is negated, than the argument would fall apart. (eg. if it isn't recognizable as environmentally friendly than the reason of people driving it to be environmentally conscious makes no sense.

(C) The Hydro has a better safety record than its competitors.
>> out of scope as we're talking about environmental impact

(D) Hydro buyers are more likely to have neighbors who also drive Hydros.
>> not relevant as whether neighbors drive Hydros doesn't affect the impression of driving a Hydro

(E) Hydro buyers have less interest in environmental causes than buyers of other highly fuel-efficient automobiles.
>> not relevant as we're talking about how it looks environmentally when driving a Hydro, not the interest of the buyers

While sales of other highly fuel-efficient automobiles are in decline, sales of the Hydro are rising. The Hydro's manufacturers attribute its success to the Hydro's price and very low fuel consumption. However, the Hydro is comparable in price and fuel efficiency to its competitors, so it is more likely that its success is due to the fact that people want to appear environmentally conscious to their neighbours.


Notes
fuel-efficient car sales down and hydro up
low price and low fuel —> hydro sales up
BUT actually same as comp.
(C) look env. conscious —> hydro sales up

[i]Analysis
The argument is that Hydro makers claim low price and low fuel cause sales to go up. The author argues that the price and fuel consumption is actually same as competitors. He then goes on to argue that desire to appear environmentally conscious is the real reason for sales increase.

Since this is an assumption, we should try to do some pre-phrasing. The hole in the argument might be that:

(A) Eliminates an alternate cause for effect: Maybe people just care more about how Hydro looks? Hydro is actually more environmentally friendly than other “highly fuel-efficient automobiles”…and everyone is aware of that? Real question is…if the price and fuel consumption are the same, why does Hydro give off the env. friendly reputation but not the other cars?

(B) Shows that when the cause occurs, the effect occurs: That desire to appear XYZ induces individuals to buy more of the item that leads to that image...regardless of anything else. [/i]

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

(A) The Hydro is the most popular highly fuel-efficient automobile available.
Even if it is the most popular, this doesn’t impact the conclusion about the desire to look environmentally friendly. Even if the Hydro IS NOT the most popular, people might still buy it for image reasons. This is incorrect because it could be true but does not HAVE to be true for the claim to work.

(B) The Hydro is recognizable as environmentally friendly in a way that its competitors are not.
Ah, this helps seal the gap since the first premise states that OTHER highly fuel-efficient cars are declining in sales but have the same price and fuel efficiency as Hydro.

(C) The Hydro has a better safety record than its competitors.
OK, this isn’t relevant. Our conclusion discusses environmental reasons….not safety records. This answer choice presents an alternative to the stated effect of Hydro sales. The negation [Hydro does not have a better safety record] doesn’t impact the argument much. In fact, if you told me that I might argue: image > safety!

(D) Hydro buyers are more likely to have neighbours who also drive Hydros.
This answer choice tries to appeal to popular opinion (my neighbours also drive the same car, so I should too!)….but it doesn’t impact the conclusion about appearance. Also the negation that buyers are NOT more likely to have neighbours driving the same car doesn’t harm the fact that sales might be up for appearance reasons.

(E) Hydro buyers have less interest in environmental causes than buyers of other highly fuel-efficient automobiles.
This weakens the argument. If they have less interest, then why bother about appearances?!

This is an intersting question and I was able to observe power of pre-thinking while approaching it. I realzied had I not given it a pre-thought chances are I might have fell for a trap. Now enough with my opinions lets take a stab at this one.

The author says that sales of hydro cars are rising even though the sales for other efficient cars is on decline, further he states that hydro efficiency and prices are comparable to other cars in the same segment, but people are still buying hydro to apper more env. conciscus to their neighbours.

Pre-thinking : - Now why is it that they are doing it, it could be due to the fact that other cars in same segment are not viwed as env. friendly/conscious as hydro.

Now lets look at the options

(A) The Hydro is the most popular highly fuel-efficient automobile available. This is close one popularity factor might led to buyers to buy hydro more, but we dont know if thats the only thing that people view as env. friendly. But anyhow lets hold on to this

(B) The Hydro is recognizable as environmentally friendly in a way that its competitors are not. This cuts at the heart of the argument, and tells us that people view hydro as more env. friendly than any other car, given this is better than A, eliminate A now confidently

(C) The Hydro has a better safety record than its competitors. We are not concerned with the safety record, so this is not relevant

(D) Hydro buyers are more likely to have neighbours who also drive Hydros. This just strengthens the conc. by providing evidence that everyone buys hydro, but we need to explain why that is this case

(E) Hydro buyers have less interest in environmental causes than buyers of other highly fuel-efficient automobiles. Again, people might still by hydro just to look more env. friendly and this is what this option tellls us but doesnt help us why that is the case

Hence B is the best we can do.

Only B is the required assumption.
As we have other automobiles which are equally efficient, but only Hydro is most popular.

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