Survey: Teens driving older cars

About 60 percent of teens are driving vehicles that are at least seven years old, and 27 percent of teens are driving vehicles that are 12 years old or older.

Those are among the results of a survey sponsored by Liberty Mutual Group, a Boston-based insurance company, and SADD - Students Against Destructive Decisions, a Marlborough group whose original mission was to help young people say no to drinking and driving.

"Are these the safest cars for teens who are already overwhelmingly at risk?" Liberty Mutual and SADD ask.

Safety should be as much a priority for selecting a used car as budgetary concerns, they said.

When it comes to parents selecting cars for their teenagers, "safety is often a second or third consideration, but it should be an equal if not leading consideration," Dave Melton, director of Transportation Technical Consulting Services at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, said in a statement.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)