How do you transport 42 cars?

Question

You're a soldier in the dictator's army. The dictator is very impressed with your incredible abilities. He asks you this question:

There are 42 cars in this parking lot over there. How do you transport them to next town?

You're confused by this question, thinking it may be a trick question. He did not specify how to transport them. You cannot find a useful answer, so you finally decide to go with a joke, hoping it will not upset him:

Well, I cannot transport all of them at once, of course. So I just transport 2 times 11 and 2 times 10!

You're not sure how that made any sense, but surprisingly, instead of having you shot, he says:

No, no. You would transport 4 times 2.

Further confused, you ask how 4 times 2 is 42, but he brushes off that question and just confirms that, yes, that's how you would do it. He also confirms that it was not a pun.

How is 4 x 2 a solution? I must add that I do not know the answer, and I do not even know what kind of puzzle it is, so I'm grateful for any possible explanations.

Answer 1

Supposing, we have exactly 42 cars and and no other means of transport and supposing,

6 people fit in one car/van, transporting 2 times 11 cars and 2 times 10 cars (= 4 transitions from old parking lot to new parking lot) is not possible because the soldiers must somehow get back to the old parking lot.

What you can do is going 4 times forth (and 3 times back) with 2 crews à 6 cars at most (that's what the dictator says).

The numbers at the beginning / end of the line denote the number of cars after each transaction.

In my original solution, I supposed that

the vans would have 12 seats and thus, only one car driving back is required. As Gordon K pointed out, a scenario with two cars à 6 persons is more likely.

In addition, the numbers at the end fit perfectly.

   Lot A        Lot B

    42                  initial number of cars
           6
    30 --------> 12     (1st time going forth)
       -------->
           6

           2
    32 <-------- 10

           6
    20 --------> 22     (2nd time going forth)
       -------->
           6

           2
    22 <-------- 20

           6
    10 --------> 32     (3rd time going forth)
       -------->
           6

           2
    12 <-------- 30

           6
     0 --------> 42     (4th and last time going forth)
       -------->
           6            (There is no space left for the dictator. But I guess 
                         the dictator has his private helicopter anyway, so 
                         no need to transport him in a van on some bad roads
                         which causes him back pain.)

Answer 2

4x2 is the two wheel drive transmission

Answer 3

He could be referring to:

Transporting the cars using a double decker car transporter capable of carrying 4 cars on each deck.. hence 'four times two' or 'four by two'.

Answer 4

This may not be enough but transport 42 then maybe 4 x 2 is a solution if

Use times symbol X interchangeably with the Roman numeral X

Transport 4 times 2 → 4 x 2 → XXXX2 → XXXX11 which is 42

May transport them 42 times and travel back say by foot or another way.