You might find (A) tempting because it seems to follow from the idea that brushes are harder on finishes. If brushes scratched more cars, wouldn't there have been more scratched cars back when every car wash used brushes? Not necessarily. (A) compares the total number of scratched cars on the road then versus now. But we have no information about how many cars were on the road in the past, how many people used car washes, or how often they used them. Even if a higher percentage of cars got scratched back then, there could have been far fewer cars on the road overall, resulting in fewer total scratched cars. The stimulus gives us no basis for this kind of comparison.

You might be drawn to (B) because the stimulus connects mitters and clear-coat finishes. It tells us that the gentleness of mitters is especially important for clear-coat finishes. But that connection doesn't mean clear-coat finishes were the reason brushless car washes were introduced. The stimulus describes a benefit of mitters for clear-coat finishes, but a benefit isn't the same as a cause. Brushless car washes could have been introduced for entirely different reasons, such as lower maintenance costs or faster wash times, and the gentleness on clear-coat finishes might just be a bonus.

This is well supported by the stimulus. Here's how: we know mitters are easier on most cars' finishes than brushes. We also know the reason this gentleness matters so much is that clear-coat finishes scratch more easily than older finishes. In other words, clear-coat finishes are the ones at risk of being scratched. By contrast, older finishes are harder to scratch. So if mitters, which are gentler than brushes, are being used on finishes that are harder to scratch, it makes sense that they usually wouldn't produce visible scratches on those older finishes. This isn't a Must Be True inference, but this isn't a Must Be True question. That's why (C) is correct.

The stimulus never addresses how well mitters or brushes actually clean cars. It only tells us that mitters are easier on finishes, meaning they're gentler and less likely to cause scratches. Being gentler is not the same as being less effective at cleaning. And nothing in the stimulus suggests anyone prefers brushes for older finishes. The stimulus is entirely about the risk of scratching, not about cleaning quality or user preference.

(E) might be tempting because the stimulus says many cars today have clear-coat finishes. But "many" doesn't mean "more than half." Thousands of cars could have clear-coat finishes and still be a minority of all cars on the road. (E) claims that clear-coat finishes outnumber older finishes, and we simply don't have the information to support that.