The Comfocar company manufactures a sedan that can drive

Question

The Comfocar company manufactures a sedan that can drive comfortably at 80 miles per hour.A rival company , Turbocar, recently introduced a comparably equipped sedan that can drive comfortably at up to 110 miles per hour.Turbocar claims that its sedan will outsell Comfo's sedan bcz the turbocar sedan can get customers to their destinations in comfort much faster than can the comfo sedan.

which, of the follwing if true casts the most doubt on Turbocar's claims?

a)customers in surveys consistently rank comfort among the most importsnt criteria in purchasing a car.

b)many road surfaces are engineered to allow comfortable drving at speeds up to 120 m/hr.

c)automotive safety experts state that it is not safe for any car to be driven faster than 100 m/hr.

d)comprehensive research has determined that while the turbocar model has faster acceleration and a higher top speed than comfo sedan,both cars show approx the same fuel efficiency.

e)nowhere in the main mktng areas for these 2 car companies is it legal or practical to drive faster than 70 m/hr.

Am really stuck on c... as its d most logical.

Source:McGraw-Hill 2013 edition

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Conclusion: Turbo sedan will outsell Comfo's because Turbo sedan can get customers to their destinations in comfort much faster than can the comfo sedan
Assumption: 
(1) Given the same comfort, customers will like faster car.
(2) areas for these 2 car companies do not limit speed for sedan.

To weaken the conclusion, we just need to show the faster speed of Turbo does not gain any advantage in selling cars.

a)customers in surveys consistently rank comfort among the most important criteria in purchasing a car.
 Wrong.  Does not say anything about speed.

b)many road surfaces are engineered to allow comfortable drving at speeds up to 120 m/hr.
 Wrong.  Out of scope.

c)automotive safety experts state that it is not safe for any car to be driven faster than 100 m/hr.
 Wrong.  This is very classic logical flaw "Appeal to Authority".  The stimulus does not mention anything as experts' comments will affect people's purchasing decision. For example, everybody knows driving fast is not safe but why people still want to drive fast? Because they want to save time, they want to enjoy fast speed....So Let assume Turbo's target customers are people who are busy and want to save time. They're willing to trade off between time saving and safety. Clearly, Turbo can outsell its sedan. Hence, C is wrong.

d)comprehensive research has determined that while the turbocar model has faster acceleration and a higher top speed than comfo sedan,both cars show approx the same fuel efficiency.
 Wrong.  Out of scope.

e)nowhere in the main mktng areas for these 2 car companies is it legal or practical to drive faster than 70 m/hr.
  Correct.    if areas for these 2 car companies limit speed equal or less than 70 m/hr, the 110m/hr advantage of Turbo does not make any point.

Hope it helps.

omkarkulkarni · Answer

Among all options A B D can be easily eliminated.

Between C and E: C is abt what experts say.

Hence E is the correct choice.

Archit143 · Answer

E is the best answere.
We need to select an option that weakens the conclusion that the faster car will outsell the slower car, because it will help ppl reach the destination more quickly. But what if the law does not permit higher speed.

Consider kudos if my post helps!!!

Archit

AnChu · Answer

It must be illegal, right?
I feel that question has a problem with choice E. If legal to drive faster than 70m/hr that means drivers can drive faster than 70m/hr, right?

Bluelagoon · Answer

At first i marked C but on further thought that might not be a killer , the car can be driven at 90km and that might be considered. Now on closer look E is the perfect answer as it takes away the advantage that turbocar has over the other car. It can't get you to your destination faster.
Hence E.

maaadhu · Answer

Why do we have to assume that "Marketing will directly co-relate to the number of sales".

Say in 2 Cities ( A & B), comfy & turbo highly markets their car.

say in city A - comfy sells 100 cars
in City B - comfy sells 200 cars
rest of all cities ( c,d,e,f,....Z) - comfy sells 100 cars

Total cars sold by comfy - 400 cars

Now Turbo

say in city A - Turbo sells 99 cars
in City B - Turbo sells 150 cars
rest of all cities ( c,d,e,f,....Z) - Turbo sells 152 cars ( As we don't know the number of cities, say each city buys 10 cars or less because of less marketing, 152 is possible)

Total cars sold by turbo - 401

Cars sold by turbo > cars sold by comfy

anamika7 · Answer

Marketing correlates to selling because the 'Main Marketing Areas' mentioned in the stimulus are the areas with the maximum customer potential for these two car companies. So, car selling (and car driving) will usually be maximum in those places.

Conclusion : Turbocar claims that its sedan will outsell Comfo's sedan bcz the turbocar sedan can get customers to their destinations in comfort much faster than can the comfo sedan.

The correct answer choice should impact the conclusion. It will do so if it shows the reason (Turbocar has higher speed) mentioned for the Turbo sedans to outsell Comfo sedans is not giving Turbo sedan any edge over its rival.

Choice E is correct as it limits the speed and shows that Turbo sedans do not have any advantage with their higher speed.

spreen · Answer

I choose E too, but still I think that there is a flaw in the reasonning because the choice of the custumers can be more about their perception than about utility of the car regarding the law. To make it simple we can buy a ferrari that can reach 300 km/h even if we absolutly know that the speed limitation is 120 km/h....

mehtakaustubh · Answer

IMO E
a..irrelevant
b..strengthens
c..strengthens... if it is not safe to drive more than 100mph still TC sedan has a advantage over CC sedan.TC can accelerate @100mph whereas cc sedan can accelerate only at 80mph..
d..strengthens
e..this is the best pick

pakasaip · Answer

e)nowhere in the main mktng areas for these 2 car companies is it legal or practical to drive faster than 70 m/hr.

I don't understand "the main mktng areas" ---> does it mean "marketing areas" ??
so how could we know that the buyers will use Turbo car in "marketing areas", not other areas.

vishumangal · Answer

Hi Could you please let me know that in E arn't we assuming that customers will have to go through marketing areas to reach their destination. Its a big assumption. I might be possibility that two customers go for a small patch through marketing areas then take highway on which car with faster speed will benefit

arya251294 · Answer

Agreed, but at the same time, Ferrari can't claim that its car will outsell a Honda sedan as Ferrari can reach 300km/hr
Because as the statement says it isn't "legal" or "practical" to reach>70m/hr.

So this is weakening the claim of the Turbo team that no you won't be able to outsell because of this reason.

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.

The Comfocar company manufactures a sedan that can drive

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

The Comfocar company manufactures a sedan that can drive

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