Final answer:
To find the automobile repair cost in the lower 5%, also known as the 5th percentile, more information is needed, such as the distribution's mean and standard deviation or a complete dataset. The provided examples demonstrate how repair costs can vary and include a percentile example for a damage repair cost at the 90th percentile ($1,700), but do not provide exact costs for the 5th percentile.
Step-by-step explanation:
A statistical data distribution, specifically concerning automobile repair charges. To find the cost associated with the lower 5% of automobile repair charges (the 5th percentile), one would need additional information about the distribution of those costs, such as the mean and standard deviation if the distribution is normal, or a more detailed dataset to analyze.
As an example, let's consider the statement '90 percent of the crash-tested cars had damage repair costs of $1,700 or less; only 10 percent had damage repair costs of $1,700 or more.' This indicates that $1,700 is at the 90th percentile. If costs were normally distributed, the value at the 5th percentile would be significantly lower than $1,700, but the exact value cannot be determined without more data.
If we consider the simplified example of automobile insurance costs given, we can find that the total damages incurred by a group of 100 drivers in a year amounted to $186,000. This example does not give a specific repair cost pertaining to the 5th percentile, but it illustrates how damage costs can vary widely based on the severity of accidents.