Rutgers student club designed, assembled race car shown at N.Y. International Auto Show

NEW YORK — On the main floor of the New York International Auto demonstrate last weekend, thousands of car lovers crowded around the glitzy displays where Chevy, Volkswagon, Toyota, Ford and dozens of other carmakers unveiled their most recent models and concept cars.

One floor up, 6-year-old Cameron Birnbaum climbed into a little race car with wide eyes. Among the hundreds of vehicles at the auto show, this one was special, Rutgers University senior David Gumpert explains to the Boston boy and his mother.

We intended it ourselves. And we take it out and race it, said Gumpert, an electrical and computer engineering major from Hunterdon County.

Man bailed after reservoir deaths

A man has been bailed after a collide in which a woman lost her mother, husband and two foster children when their car plunged into a reservoir. The woman has been described as "deeply traumatized".

The 23-year old man, detained on suspicion of causing the four deaths by dangerous driving, has been released on bail.

The four people died, believed drowned, when the people transporter they were travelling in plummeted into a reservoir in Wales on Wednesday. It is believed that the man's Ford Mondeo may have been accountable for forcing the people carrier off the road.

The woman at the wheel of the people carrier was the only person to endure the horrific accident, and was described today as "deeply traumatised" following losing her 84-year old mother, 66-year old husband, and two male teenage foster kids.

Things To Check For A Proper Insurance Coverage

If you are lucky enough to find an car transport company that offers insurance coverage, then there are a few things that you must check to receive the insurance coverage without difficulties. Never hesitate to ask questions about the auto shipping company’s insurance policies. You should study the insurance policy documents of the auto shipping company and to satisfy about the genuineness of the documents, you can even crosscheck with the auto transport insurance provider.

Beware that some auto movers may provide only very restricted insurance coverage – at times, it will be even less than your vehicle’s actual market value. It has to be stated that there may be a few unscrupulous auto transport companies that may try all types of tricks to evade paying insurance claim. It is also important to personally verify whether the auto transport company has a valid insurance certificate.

Please note if your auto shipping company avoids or deliberately delays settling your damage claim, you are at liberty to file a complaint with local Better Business Bureau. This apart, you can also report the matter to the Department of Transportation for speedy redress and as a last resort you can also approach the law courts. But it is prudent to first attempt to sort out your complaints with your auto shipping company and if you still feel that you are not getting justice, you can take recourse to other measures.

Quite often, the insurance coverage provided by the auto transport company may not be sufficient to cover the expense of the vehicle replacement. It is therefore preferable you contact the company's insurance agency and know firsthand the terms and conditions in the policy. When transporting luxury vehicles or any other unique types of vehicles, you must ensure that the insurance coverage includes the blue book value of the vehicle.

What ZipCar's IPO means for car-sharing

Car-sharing company ZipCar is expected to hit the public markets afterward this week, after some fits and starts caused by anti-trust issues in Britain. It would have an preliminary market cap of approximately $618 million, were it to price its IPO at the high end of its future $14-$16 per share range.

To get a better sense of what this listing could mean for the burgeoning car-sharing market, I spent various time on the phone with Shelby Clark, founding CEO of Relay Rides, a Google Ventures-backed company that lets users "borrow" their neighbors' car (ZipCar owns its individual fleet).

Up your street - Microsoft's take on Streetview

If you live in London you may see a car with cameras mounted on the roof coming down your street more the coming weeks. You are probable to assume that it's those folks from Google refreshing the Street view service which shows views along just about every road in the UK. But you'd be wrong - the car will be operated by Google's deadly rival Microsoft.

As it tries to make its Bing search engine a more potent rival to the company that dominates search, Microsoft is sending its cars crossways London to start building something called Street side. This service is already obtainable in the United States and is now coming to Europe. According to Microsoft, Street side "provides a true-to-life view you can explore to get a feel for a place and plan your activities. Travel along streets, view storefronts and parks, and navigate to destination without an address.

Ah, you might think, that sounds just like Street view. No, no, says Microsoft, it's very dissimilar. For one thing, we won't be going up every street, just sticking to downtown areas and traveler locations. For another, we will be distant more careful about telling everyone in advance that we are doing this.

When Google was gathering the images for Street view it ran into a number of privacy rows, particularly when residents of a village near Milton Keynes forced the driver of one of its cars to turn around and depart because they were sad about his cameras peering over their hedges.

Cars after Japan's quake: Toyota, Nissan, and Honda plan to restart production

Despite the huge difficulties the Japanese car industry is facing, analysts say automakers will be capable to recover in the year ahead.

Tokyo
As every car owner knows, it only takes one missing part to carry a car to a screeching halt. And the average car contains anyplace from 20,000 to 30,000 parts, many of which – even in American-made cars – come from Japan.

As disaster-hit Japanese automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers resist to resume operations, the global auto industry hasn't fairly come to a standstill, but it is suffering losses in production of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, amounting to billions of dollars.

We’ve already seen production at GM, Ford, Renault, and Peugeot being disrupt, says Christopher Richter, a Tokyo-based auto analyst for the Hong Kong-based CLSA investment group. The auto supply chain is a bit similar to a house of cards; and there are going to be some surprises popping up in the form of sudden shortages down the line.

Still, despite the enormous difficulties the industry is facing, analysts say automakers like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda will be capable to recover in the year ahead.

Putin rides first Russian hybrid car to see Medvedev

(Reuters) - Avid car lover and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin herd Russia's first gasoline-electric hybrid car on Friday to visit supporting partner President Dmitry Medvedev.

Called Yo-mobile, the car is a personal project of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who has said it could bring Russia a spirited edge in the global automotive industry, where the country is better known for its boxy Lada cars.

I would like to drive your Yo-mobile to Dmitry Anatolievich (Medvedev), and demonstrate it to him ... I hope your Yo-mobile will not fall apart on the way, Putin told Prokhorov at a meeting just outside of Moscow.

About 5 kilometers (3 miles) detach Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo country residence, nestled in a pine forest exterior Moscow, from Medvedev's home in Gorki.

The car, whose name is a play on a Russian swear word, drives both on petrol and ordinary gas.

It has a rotary engine and uses ultra capacitators, an energy-storing device seen as an choice to lithium-ion batteries, which are installed on all other hybrid cars presently in production.