The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (www.iihs.org, June 11, 2009) published data on repair costs for cars involved in different types of accidents. In one study, seven different 2009 models of mini- and micro-cars were driven at 6 mph straight into a fixed barrier. The following table gives the cost of repairing damage to the bumper for each of the seven models.
Model Repair Cost
Smart Fortwo....... $1,480
Chevrolet Aveo...... $1,071
Mini Cooper....... $2,291
Toyota Yaris....... $1,688
Honda Fit....... $1,124
Hyundai Accent..... $3,476
Kia Rio............... $3,701
Compute the values of the mean and median. Why are these values so different? Which of the two—mean or median—appears to be better as a description of a typical value for this data set?