EXAMPLE 5 We won!

GM’s Cadillac brand was the best-selling luxury car in the United States for 57 years in a row. In 1998, Ford’s Lincoln brand seemed to be winning until the last moment. Said the New York Times, “After reporting almost unbelievable sales results in December, Cadillac eked out a come-from-behind victory by just 222 cars.” The final count was 187,343 for Cadillac, 187,121 for Lincoln. Then GM reported that Cadillac sales dropped 38% in January. How could sales be so different in December and January? Could it be that some January sales were counted in the previous year’s total? Just enough, say, to win by 222 cars? Yes, indeed. In May, GM confessed that it sold 4773 fewer Cadillacs in December than it had claimed.