A helpful reference work for brand-new driver; Your First Car, by George and Suzanne Fremon. Cockeysville, Md.: Liberty Publishing Company. $3.95.

A never-ending question from teen-age son to dad is: "Hey, Dad, can I have the car keys?" Usually, he gets them -- and he's off.

Untold numbers of youths get their own cars as well -- snazzy-looking sports jobs with air spoilers, pinstriping, and a thundering roar out the tailpipe; junk heaps, and everything in between.

How well prepared they are for the road is anybody's guess.

Millions of youths pass through highschool driving courses while others go to professional schools for highway knowhow. The're confident, sometimes skilled, and too often careless. The results are listed in the statistics year.

Hence, the importance to the teen-ager of finding out all he (and sh) can about a car -- not only how to control it on the road but also how to respect the car, and everyone else on the highway as well.

That's what this book tries to do. It assumes that a youth with his first car does not have a lot of money; also, that he doesn't know all there is to know about how the car runs and how to keep it that way.

"The purpose of this book is to help you make a success of your first car," the authors write in the introduction.

Simply stated, it helps the young motorist find his way under the hood and head off any problems before they become acute. In so doing, the cost of motoring is cut.

The language is simple (doesn't every youth know what an axle is -- or a gear?), the descriptions uncompolicated, and the tone helpful.

A lot of what is said is perhaps already known by many young drivers. Even so, a few good tips, could still save a lot more than the price of the book.