Band 7+: Task 1: You have approximately 20 minutes to complete this task. The chart below gives information on the amount of time taken to manufacture a vehicle by four US-based car producers between 1998 and 2002. Provide an overview of the information by identifying and describing the key details, and include comparisons where appropriate.

The line chart illustrates how much time four US based car manufacturers spent producing a vehicle from 1998 to 2002.

Overall, it is clear that there is a downward trend in vehicle production times of manufacturers, except for Ford. In addition, the time Nissan required to manufacture a car saw a sharp decrease.

Starting at 37 hours per vehicle in 1998, Nissan’s manufacturing time decreased dramatically to 21 hours per vehicle. For General Motors, the pattern appears to be similar. GM spent 32 hours producing a vehicle in 1998, which was followed by a decrease significantly to 24 hours in 2000.

Regarding DC, the amount of time production for each vehicle in 1998 was 34 hours, and then dropped slightly, before remaining stable at under 28 hours in 2000. By contrast, Ford had spent only 25 hours by 1998 to produce the vehicle, after which it increased slightly to 26 hours in the final year.