arya251294
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 GMATNinjaQuote:
(B) Tourists renting cars from national rental firms almost never need to pay for taxi rides to or from the airport.
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.
Quote:
(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.
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!