Three Auckland teenagers were killed when the vehicle they were in crashed off the Northwestern Motorway in Auckland during a high-speed police pursuit on Christmas Eve.

National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson says today's young people think they are bullet-proof. He blames Playstations and X-boxes for making teens think they can drive stupidly and just push the reset button if anything goes wrong.

Mr Williamson believes 15 is far too young to be behind the wheel of a car.

Driving is fatal for almost 50,000 Americans every year. People between 15 and 24 years old (especially males) have the highest rate of auto-related deaths, even though people in this age group may be smart, skilled, and have great reflexes. A collision is the most likely tragedy to kill or cripple a teenager.

It's called pimpin' or donkin' and no, most of us didn't know what that meant either. But basically, it means restoring, specifically old American cars generally from around 1970. "This is a '69 Buick Electra. Just an old man kinda Grandpa car." Believe it or not, 20-year-old Ian Huber is just the 2nd owner of this car.

He got it from an older gentleman who lived in University Tower. And you can bet car-makers are scratching their heads trying to figure out how it could appeal to both of them. "One thing, they're fairly easy to work on. Modern cars, it's computerized. You've gotta have computers to work on the engines. It's a lot harder to do mechanical upgrades and just modify."

"I kind of wanted to bring it back and keep it around, I didn't want it to die out." 22-year-old Stephen Walker is in the process of donkin' a '83 Buick Regal. "New interior, re-paint a little, new rims, that's about it. Maybe a small-block chevy instead of the V6."

Don't forget the 8 batteries and the hydraulics. Steve Berg: "How much does all of this stuff cost?" Stephen Walker: "Around $4,000, because when you do this, the car has to be taken completely apart." Ian Huber: "I've done power door locks on it." Granted there have been a few changes since grandpa drove it, but the appeal crosses generations. For Huber, it's been a bonding experience with his dad who's in the restoration business.

A seat belt broke recently. The car gets heat but not air, but none of that bothers Hansen too much. He likes to ride with the windows down, anyway. He sees the car, a hand-me-down from his dad, as a boon; he didn't have a job when he got it at 16.

"It gets me from Point A to Point B," he says. "That's really all I need right now."

According to Auto Extra's survey, 90% of the parents quizzed said safety was the most important factor. Not surprisingly, when asked about their children, 66% of parents said "style or coolness" was a major concern for their children, and 61% listed safety as a concern.

All of which means a little shuffling of priorities. The argument of insurance costs can help.

"One of the biggest challenges a family faces when selecting a car for a teen driver is convincing the teen that there are more important considerations than what's cool," says Charley Gillespie, a spokesman for Nationwide insurance.

An August survey by AutoExtra.com found that three out of four driving-age students own cars, half of which were purchased by parents. Of the 500 parents polled in the survey, 82 percent said they bought used cars and most of them cost under $10,000.

Fall is a prime time for teens' first car purchases, especially this year, as July's record high auto sales led to a surplus of cars from trade-ins, which means there's more selection and lower prices on used car lots. But while they were looking for less expensive cars for their children, 90 percent of parents polled in AutoExtra.com's survey cited safety and reliability as their biggest concerns.

As a general rule, safety-conscious parents tend to focus on car size, said Jonathan Adkins, communications director for the Governors Highway Safety Association. Adkins said parents often buy SUVs because they think bigger is better. But only the newest models of SUVs have electronic stability control to prevent rollovers and many parents can only afford the used models.