Suppose that the local sales tax rate is $4 \%$ and you purchase a car for $\$ 26,500$.
a. How much tax is paid?
b. What is the car's total cost?
a. The amount of tax paid is $\$ \square$.

Step 1 ：Suppose that the local sales tax rate is 4% and you purchase a car for $26,500.

Step 2 ：To calculate the tax paid, we need to multiply the cost of the car by the tax rate. The tax rate is given as a percentage, so we need to convert it to a decimal by dividing by 100.

Step 3 ：Let's denote the cost of the car as \(car\_cost = 26500\) and the tax rate as \(tax\_rate = 0.04\).

Step 4 ：Then, the tax paid can be calculated as \(tax\_paid = car\_cost \times tax\_rate\).

Step 5 ：Substituting the given values, we get \(tax\_paid = 26500 \times 0.04 = 1060.0\).

Step 6 ：Final Answer: The amount of tax paid is \(\boxed{1060.0}\) dollars.