Fedora Convertibles began selling the Freewheeler—its newest

Question

Fedora Convertibles began selling the Freewheeler—its newest convertible sports car—in May of this year. Fedora sent out a press release last month indicating that the Freewheeler’s sales for May, June, July, and August totaled over 50,000. As a result, Fedora will in all likelihood easily meet its stated sales goal of 120,000 for Freewheeler's first year of release.

Which of the following would be most useful in order to evaluate this prediction?

(A) Fedora is the market leader in this category of automobile. 
(B) Freewheeler is significantly more expensive than similar models produced by Fedora’competitors. 
(C) Fedora released a similar model in May of the previous year. 
(D) Sales of similar models of cars are typically much higher in the summer months than at any other time of the year. 
(E) Freewheeler sales are important to meeting the sales goals of Fedora as a company.

akhil911 · Accepted Answer

There is a very good variance test that e-gmat proposes to use in case of evaluate the argument questions.
The variance test suggests that in options that seem feasible , take the answer choice to extremes - both positive and negative ways and if the conclusion in the argument also sways the same way then that is the correct answer choice.
For example in this question the conclusion is "Fedora will in all likelihood easily meet its stated sales goal of 120,000 for Freewheeler's first year of release."
when we go through the answer choices then one answer choice that seems to be good is option D.
To evaluate our argument we take this answer choice and take it to extremes 
-> Sales of similar models of cars are typically much higher in summer months - assume this is 100% true.
If this is true then it raises doubt about the conclusion.
-> Sales of similar models of cars are typically much higher in summer months - assume this is not true at all.
If this is not true then our conclusion stands valid as it is assumed that the the sales of the car will go on at similar rate.

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BloombergKasia · Answer

In order to know whether the company is going to achieve its sales target, we need to know whether people will continue buying the convertibles in the remaining months of the year. Answer A is too general and thus irrelevant. Choice B also does not help because even if this is true, people have already bought 50000 of these cars. Thus the price does not discourage them. Answer C is also too general. The fact that the company launched a similar model does not help us decide how many cars will be sold this year. Answer E is also out of scope. The fact that the sales of the new model are important for the company does not influence people's buying habits. The correct answer is  D . If people buy convertibles only in the summer, it is very likely that the company will not reach its sales target.

coolredwine · Answer

I was stuck between A and D. Why can't the answer be A?

hsbinfy · Answer

Hi coolredwine,

i also narrowed it down to A and D. but A is too general.it just says that company is a market leader...so what??
there should be some insight given about the sales of the cars ..whether or not it can achieve its target or not...which clearly D does.

coolredwine · Answer

Can't we say that since Fedora is the market leader, it will be selling most number of cars. Hence the conclusion of the argument?

StoicBread · Answer

No question that this is a sub-600 question

JamesPatrick · Answer

Need an explanation that why the answer is c

Posted from my mobile device

mSKR · Answer

You mean why not C

(C) Fedora released a similar model in May of the previous year.

It is irrelevant. Our scope of discussion this year model target.

Hoozan · Answer

EducationAisle  can this be an official question? The tag says GMAT Prep. But this argument, I believe has loopholes. To begin with how can we ascertain that May-June-July-August are the summer months? In some countries the summer months are different. To select the right OA were are making leaping assumptions out here

EducationAisle · Answer

Well, I did a Google search on this question, and it does look like this might be an unofficial question.

Carolweszxdrcftvb · Answer

How does it guarantee that the sale in summer might drastically decreasing in winter thus not meeting the goals. How can option D be the answer

A_Nishith · Answer

when we go through the answer choices then one answer choice that seems to be good is option D.
To evaluate our argument we take this answer choice and take it to extremes
-> Sales of similar models of cars are typically much higher in summer months - assume this is 100% true.
If this is true then it raises doubt about the conclusion.
-> Sales of similar models of cars are typically much higher in summer months - assume this is not true at all.
If this is not true then our conclusion stands valid as it is assumed that the the sales of the car will go on at similar rate.

Answer: D

Fedora Convertibles began selling the Freewheeler—its newest

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Fedora Convertibles began selling the Freewheeler—its newest

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