Suppose you are in the market to purchase a used car. To make an informed decision regarding your purchase, you would like to collect as much information as possible. Among the information you might consider is the typical price of the car, the typical number of miles the car should have, and its crash test results, insurance costs, and expected repair costs.
Make a list of at least three cars that you would consider purchasing. To be fair, the cars should be in the same class (compact, midsize, etc). They should also be of the same age.
Collect information regarding the three cars in your list by finding at eight cars of each that are for sale. Obtain such information as the asking price and the number of miles the car has. Sources of data include your local newspaper, classified ads, and car websites (www.cars.com and www.vehix.com). Compute the summary statistics for asking price, number of miles, and other variables of interest. Remember, the summary statistics include min, max, mean, median, mode, range, variance, standard deviation, and so on.
