Manhattan SC problem

[parveen chaudhary]

Please refer your SC guide pg.101,Q12,chapter on comparison.
Owning a car is still Dan's goal,like that of his parents [b]when they were his age[/b].
In your corrected version you use as.
The original sentence is also correct as it compares 2 goals(nouns)-Dan's goal and parent's goal.
"when they were his age" is a modifier-so will not affect the use of as/like.
For a better understanding we can read thus:
Owning a car is still Dan's goal,like that of his parents.

[esledge]

I agree that you can ignore "when they were his age" as it is a modifier.

In isolation, "goal, like that of his parents" is good too. Like is appropriately used to compare nouns, and those nouns are logically similar (i.e. both are goals). Noun comparisons have a lot of rules: you must use "like," the "like" comparison phrase has to touch the original noun, and you can't have a verb in the comparison phrase. Because of all these rules, it is really tough to use a "like" phrase correctly later in the sentence.

Owning a car is still Dan's goal, like that of his parents (when they were his age).
At the very least, this is awkward, because "like that of his parents" could be seen as modifying "is still Dan'g goal." In other words, it is dangerously close to comparing his parent's goal (a noun) to the action "is."

But you can clear up the confusion by moving those nouns to the beginning of the sentence:
Dan, like his parents (when they were his age), has a goal of owning a car.
Dan's goal, like that of his parents (when they were his age), is to own a car.
Generally, put the like phrase first, or immediately after an initial noun.

Comparisons of actions are easier to make correctly, and can go more easily at the end. Thus, the suggestion in the book to switch to "as."

Just to be clear: The solution is not meant to suggest that "as" is somehow preferable to "like." You can get the same idea across with either, IF you are free to write the sentence entirely from scratch, moving things around as necessary. On the GMAT, you'll need to see what you are "stuck with" in the non-underlined part of the sentence, and chose the comparison accordingly.