Riding Along In Your Automobiiiiiile

By Margaret Lyons in News on Mar 3, 2008 8:40PM

What kinds of cars do Chicagoans drive?

Chevys, mostly. They're the most popular make registered in Illinois. The Sun-Times dug through the Secretary of State's data on vehicle registry (which includes makes but not models) and found some interesting info. They also made a pretty map (pdf). Mmmm, mappy. Actually, we prefer Globey. But to each her own.

Some of the S-T's findings:

• In Cook County, every single ZIP code is dominated by one of five makes of automobile -- Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Mercedes.
• Nearly 64 percent of all cars registered in the six-county area are American-made.
• The highest percentage of late-model cars in Chicago? In the Near West Side/Greektown's 60661, where autos average 6.8 years old.
• Top Toyota neighborhood in Chicago? West Ridge (60645), 17.4 percent of all vehicles. (Toyota is also No. 1 in Uptown, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Albany Park, North Park and Hyde Park.)
• Luxury cars account for 40 percent or more of all vehicles in: Glencoe (60022), Winnetka (60093), Kenilworth (60043) and the Gold Coast (60611).

Photo by Kudzuplanet