CAR TALK\Steering dad toward safest car for teen driver.

Byline: Tom & Ray Magliozzi 

Dear Tom and Ray:What is the best car to buy our 16-year-old daughter? Cost, while a factor, is a lower priority than air bags, reinforced doors, anti-lock brakes and other safety features that will improve her chances of survival should she be in an accident. We live approximately five minutes from a major university, where there were five car wrecks on the first day of classes. Alcohol plays a large role in most wrecks in our area (probably in all areas) and we are more concerned about the "other guys" being careless than we are about our daughter's driving ability and judgment. What would you recommend, preferably secondhand, for our daughter.

- Irving

Tom: You want a secondhand recommendation? What if I tell my brother and he tells you?

Ray: My brother recommends an early '90s Volvo, Irv. It's hard to beat a Volvo for passive safety. It's heavy, structurally strong, and if you don't go back too many years, you can get one with at least a driver's airbag and probably ABS, too.

Tom: The only significant safety improvement that has come along since then is the limited introduction of side-impact air bags, which you can get on newer Volvos and some Mercedes and BMW models. The cheapest of that bunch is probably a new Volvo 850, which'll cost you about $30,000. And my guess is your daughter will need a hefty hike in her allowance to make the payments on that baby.

Ray: So I'd suggest either an early '90s Volvo 240 or 740 if snow is not an issue where you live. Or a '93 or '94 Volvo 850 if snow is a factor, since the 850 is front-wheel drive. Those are all very safe cars. Plus, none of them is terribly flashy, so she won't attract undue attention.

Tom: And trust me, Irv. As the father of a formerly 16-year old-daughter, she'll be attracting enough unwanted attention (at least from your point of view) without a flashy set of wheels. Good luck to both of you.

Dear Tom and Ray:

Help! Help! I just drove my son's 1960 Ford pickup. He loves it, but I'm worried because the Ford "roadwalks." Is that what you call it? It wanders all over the place. I felt grateful just to keep it in my lane! Rob just laughed and patted my head and said, "It's OK, Mom." He says he's used to it, so it's no problem. He says all he needs is a steering box. Am I worrying over nothing?

- Helen

Tom: I don't think you are, Helen. He may be right about the truck. But it deserves a closer look.

Ray: It's true that cars of that vintage handled like wet toast. We forget how bad they were. You used to have to pick a landmark about a quarter of a mile away, and just sort of aim for it. Improved handling is one of the greatest differences between cars of 1960 and cars of 1990. So part of your shock may be that you're just not used to such a lousy-handling vehicle.

Tom: On the other hand, the front end of the truck may be falling apart. He may need not only a steering box, but kingpins, tires, tie-rod ends and who knows what else? Wheels may be getting ready to fall off. And that stuff is not going to be made OK by just patting Mom on the head. That stuff has to be fixed - and fast.

Ray: And if you (we're assuming you're a reasonably good driver, Helen) can't drive this truck under normal conditions without weaving all over the road, I'd say you're right to be on his case. He should either fix it or get rid of it. Because if it handles that badly under normal conditions, he's going to be a danger to everyone else on the road the minute it starts to rain, snow or the winds pick up.

Tom: So don't let him drive around like that. Insist that he get the front end carefully inspected and fully fixed up if he wants to keep the truck. Or try to talk him into trading up to a '61.