Many critics claim that federally mandated car safety

Question

Many critics claim that federally mandated car safety standards are actually impairing car safety in Country X. These critics note that car manufacturers only have to meet the minimum requirements of the government in order to be viewed as safe by the consuming public. If no standards were set, manufacturers would need to compete on safety in order to have any customers at all.

Which of the following is an assumption made by the critics in the argument above?

A. Large cars, such as trucks and sport utility vehicles, are inherently safer than small cars. 
 B. A significant proportion of car customers own more than one car. 
 C. The minimum safety requirements decreed by the government of Country X are considered intolerably unsafe. 
 D. Other factors in a customer's car purchase decision, such as price and comfort features, are more important than safety concerns. 
 E. In the absence of safety standards, potential car customers will be able to tell which cars are the most safe.

Pansi · Answer

A- There is no reference to any other vehicle other than cars in the Stimulus.
B- Car Safety is the point of contention and not ownership
C- Too big a stretch to assume this. This assumption does not support the premise.
D- Negation of this assumption does not disrupt the premise.
 E- Perfect as an assumption. Negation of this assumption makes the entire Stimulus baseless.

souvik101990 · Answer

Conclusion of the argument: If there were NO govt set standards, car manufacturers would provide safety as a quantifiable feature to attract consumers. In other words as safety goes up consumer purchase of cars goes up.

Only E states the assumption that is, the consumer themselves MUST know how to select between 2 cars with comparable (or not) safety. If they fail to differentiate then the consumers will not buy cars with respect to the safety incorporated in them.

getgyan · Answer

+1 E

I got stuck between C and E. After using negation I found E as a better answer, anyhow the word "intolerable" in the option C is too extreme.

amirzohrevand · Answer

Hello  egmat  
can you please explain why choice E is correct?

dominicraj · Answer

The argument states that "If no standards were set, manufacturers would need to compete on safety in order to have any customers at all. "

Now for that competition to happen and cars to become more safer, firstly the customers need to know how to differentiate the safety level of one car from another(without any standards set by the government)

Only option E states that. In assumption question we use the "negation test".

E:In the absence of safety standards, potential car customers will be able to tell which cars are the most safe.

Negated E:In the absence of safety standards, potential car customers will  not  be able to tell which cars are the most safe. We notice that if we use negated E, the conclusion will fall apart. Hence it is the assumption made.

souvik101990 · Answer

Great explanation  dominicraj

seasonliew · Answer

Those who opted for C probably had misidentified the conclusion(outcome). C is the assumption of the first sentence which could be easily identified as the conclusion of the argument.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Many critics claim that federally mandated car safety

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Many critics claim that federally mandated car safety

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards