Advertisement: Over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one. So be warned: you should ...

Mehran November 21, 2017

@Emma this is a cause and effect argument.

The observed effect the advertisement is trying to explain is that "over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one."

The proposed cause? Test-driving a Zenith because as the question stem sets forth, "the quality of the car is unusually impressive."

This is a Weaken question so we are looking for an answer choice that will cast doubt on this cause and effect relationship.

The problem with (D) is that it does not rule out that the test-drive is causing people to purchase a Zenith car. Whether after one test drive or two, it could still be the test drive that is causing the buying decision.

Compare that with (C), which weakens by saying the buying decision is actually the cause of the decision to test drive, which obviously would weaken this proposed cause and effect relationship.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

odsimkins March 10, 2020

I'm still confused about how you know to choose C over D because the premise says if you even drive it around the block, you have an 80% chance of buying it. So wouldn't having to drive it twice, i.e. more than "just around the block" weaken the argument that it's an unusually impressive car?

shunhe March 28, 2020

Hi @odsimkins,

Thanks for the question! Two things here: the first thing is to remember that on the LSAT, we need to always be picking the best answer, not just an adequate answer. You could certainly make the argument that you mentioned; however, (C) is on much firmer ground and is thus clearly a better answer than (D). For example, it’s equally as likely that the people who purchase the car on the first day are still super impressed by the quality of the car, and then go on to give it a second test drive. That doesn’t mean that the car isn’t unusually impressive. Also, if this is a habit of people who purchase cars in general, then it’s held constant between Zenith cars and other car companies. In other words, (D) doesn’t change anything about the fact that over 80% of people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one. Maybe at car company Y, only 40% of the people who test-drive the car end up buying one, and so something still needs to explain this discrepancy.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.