) An organization that evaluates the performance of automobiles wants to predict the performance of used cars (cars that are more than one year old). The objective is to predict COST, the maintenance cost (in dollars) of used cars for the first year after they are purchased by a new owner. The explanatory variable is:

The explanatory variable is:

period of usage.

Explanation:

As the explanatory variable, the period of usage of the car does not depend on the maintenance cost or its performance.  Instead, the maintenance cost and the performance of the automobile, which are response or dependent variables, depend on the period of usage.  Period of usage (time) is always an independent or explanatory variable.  In this organization, the performance of the automobile does not depend on the maintenance cost, but the two dependent variables (performance and maintenance cost) depend on the period of usage.

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