Sentence Correction

Received a PM asking me to respond. I would be happy to, but you need to list the author of the question first. Experts aren't supposed to respond if proper credit hasn't been given to the author. Please do so and let me know; then I'll respond!

Thanks (for citing the source)!

Yeah, I really don't think the OA is D.

Original sentence:
Minivans carry <detail> and, <comparison marker>, A, B, C, and D (parallel details of comparison).

Nothing obviously wrong there. List of 4 items is properly parallel. Modifiers look okay so far. Let's check the other answers.

Vertical scan:

B, D, and E change the opening structure from subject verb (minivans carry) to subject modifier (using either ", which" or ", carrying"). We want a noun modifier, so we wouldn't use ", carrying." Eliminate D.

B and E are okay just as far as "minivans, which" but we did remove the main verb ("carry") when we made this modifier switch, so what's the main verb now? Searching B... there's no main verb to go with minivan. Eliminate B. Searching E... ditto - no main verb. Eliminate.

Left with A and C. Vertical scan. First difference is "and, compared" (in A) vs. ", in comparison" (in C). C moves the word "and" to after the comparison language ("and have a lower cost"). Interesting. What are we actually comparing? Minivans to SUVs. Oops - C says "passengers, in comparison with SUVs, and..." That makes the comparison between passengers and SUVs, not passengers and minivans. Eliminate C. (Also, C messes up the parallelism of the four items in the list - it basically removes the first item from the list and then creates a run-on sentence.)

A it is!