Results tagged “cars”

Ford Motor Company released sales data that showed which cities preferred which colors when buying cars. And according to Ford's stats, Chicago ranked as a top five market for black and brown cars. Results also show Chicago as a top five market for six cylinder engines. For the record, the Chicagoist company car looks like this.

Every time our car gets towed from the Chicagoist Happy Hour, we resign ourselves to our fate: a long, expensive ride down to a random city lot somewhere incredibly inconvenient. Endless lines. Administrative hurdles that make tax forms look easy. And sometimes, we're lucky enough to find someone generous enough to give us a quasi-official hearing. We always lose. And then it's ramen noodles again, for months. But at least the hearing made us feel better about the situation.

Today is the final day of the government's controversial "Cash for Clunkers" program but by the sounds of it, if you didn't cash in over the weekend, you're pretty much out of luck now.

For the second time in about a week, multiple cars were set on fire. The latest incident occurred last night in Lincoln Square where four cars were burned in a parking lot in the 5600 block of North Western Avenue. No one was hurt and an investigation is underway. Police say it doesn't appear to be related to last week's incidents of car burnings on the Northwest Side. [CBN]

Officials said they would put plans for a proposed $1.8 billion program to add green carpool lanes on the tollway -- in addition to an interchange to connect Interstate 57 and the Tri-State Tollway -- on hold Thursday. While tollway directors still support the idea, lower gas prices and the potential use of stimulus funds for interchange work has led them to fall back on pushing the plan forward.

Eight legislators saw the best and worst of the city's transit on a tour led by the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee to show the need for a multi-billion dollar program to upgrade and maintain the transit system on Friday.

While the Big Three grasp for lifelines from Washington -- due in part because they missed the trend shift toward fuel efficient vehicles -- new car companies are on the rise to fill the void for those looking for a "green" ride. Perhaps the most high profile of them will soon be setting up shop in Chicago. Tesla Motors, known for its sporty electric cars with six-figure stickers, will open a showroom and service center this spring at 1053 W. Grand Ave. The dealership will be Tesla's first one outside of California.

As promised, Chicagoist checked out the 2009 Chicago Auto Show over the weekend. And as suspected, the show was a smaller event than in recent years. While most auto makers still had their wares on the show floor -- Porsche was the noticeable exception -- the brands clearly scaled back their displays in both decor and in terms of the numbers of cars on the floor. This was especially evident for the larger brands, who used to feature a number of their most popular models for attendees to check out in all the various trim levels. In booth after booth this year, however, just one of each model beckoned people to check it out.

The economic crisis that's gripping the nation might have claimed yet another local victim: vehicle stickers. Whether or not that's the reason fewer people are buying stickers (as opposed to, say, laziness), you'll still get ticketed out the wazoo if you're caught sans sticker.

Through Oct. 31, investigators for the city clerk's office had issued 46,541 tickets to vehicles that either had an expired city sticker or no sticker at all. That's up 8 percent from the same period a year ago. City stickers cost $75 for passenger vehicles, reduced to $30 for senior citizens. The sticker fee for SUVs went up -- from $90 to $120 -- in 2008. The 46,541 figure includes only those tickets written by the clerk's office.

A new study released today found that 97 percent of Illinois parents don't know the state's child safety restraint laws, and 67 percent said "most parents with a young child do not have a clear understanding of how to correctly install and/or use child safety seats." For the record, Illinois law says kids in the car need to be in a "child restraint"—a car seat or booster seat—until they're 8 years old. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children under 14, according to AAA, and, and the NTSB says using proper restraints for kids could reduce injuries and deaths by 50 percent. [AAA, Seatcheck]

Mayor Daley says Monday's shooting of a city employee who was booting a car is an isolated incident, and that booters don't need to go back to working in two-person teams. Earlier this year, the Department of Revenue switched to solo missions, with employees driving van equipped with cameras rather than working in crews.

  

In my dreams, a Baconmobile is a little more ambitious than this. But it's a start.

Today's Darwin award nominee: "A 30-year-old man dipped the rear tires of his BMW X5 into the Cal-Sag Channel Tuesday night to see if there was a leak. Moments later the vehicle was up to its roof in water, Worth police said." The guy was fine, so it's completely OK to laugh at this. [Trib]

A Department of Revenue employee was shot and wounded this morning while booting a car on the 8400 block of South Dante Ave. It's not clear if the shooter was also the car owner. The city employee was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition. [WBBM]

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says states should raise the age at which teens can get drivers licenses to 17 or 18. The report says higher licensing age "would save lives."

Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer is driving a solar-powered car around to highlight the feasibility of alternative fuels. He cruised through Chicago yesterday in his two-seat, three-wheeled contraption that tops out around 55mph. [AP, ABC 7]

The CPD is considering changing how its cars and SUVs look. And lo, the options are fug.

In the last year in Illinois, cell phone use was listed as the primary or secondary cause of 1,357 crashes, in which eight people died and 351 were injured. IDOT says these numbers are probably low, given that not all law enforcement officers fill out crash reports as thoroughly as they're supposed to.

Yesterday’s 79th Annual Bud Billiken Day Parade left many parade goers surprised when they returned to their cars to find them missing.

Mayor Daley wants to boot cars after two tickets instead of three, which he says will help the city close its $400 million budget gap by bringing in around $48 million.

I've had "Concrete and Clay" stuck in my head all damn day. Good thing it's so awesome.

People like JoeM500 don't need to worry about vehicle stickers this year, but the rest of us motorvatin' four-wheelin' city dwellers have just days to go until we're at risk of one of those $120 "You Forgot To Get Your Sticker" tickets. Did you get your reminder in the mail? Yeah, neither did we—and WBBM is reporting that we're not alone.

     

Forget cars vs. bikes. I want a Scootacar. Like this one. Here it is in action.

The average Chicago driver is in an accident every 7.6 years according to a new study from Allstate, which makes us the 176th safest. Out of 193. We're not the worst! We're not the worst! The safest "city" is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where drivers are in accidents once every 14.6 years; the most dangerous driving is in DC, where drivers are in accidents every 5.4 years. Hilariously for anyone who's spent any time around New England, Massachusetts drivers were not evaluated in the study.

City Council's police and fire committee has proposed raising the fine for illegal tinted front windows to $250. It's currently $25, and given that the police issued 30,000 tickets last year for tinted windows, the higher fines could mean big bucks for the City. Tinted front windows (and windshields) are illegal because they pose a safety risk for police officers who need to be able to see into a car if they pull someone over. Also, geeze louise, 30,000 cars have illegal tinted windows? That number seems astronomically high to us.

Yeargh, we wish organizations still had letterhead this pretty.

The CPD has issued 101 warnings in two hours today to drivers who failed to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk. An undercover officer tried to cross at Belmont and Lawndale in a sting operation to bust folks who don't yield to those of us on foot. The law requires drivers stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, even when there's no stop sign or traffic light, but not everyone is so into following that rule.

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Not only are local gas prices awful (averaging $4.19 per gallon), but apparently so are our drivers.

Mark your calendars, car folk: city stickers expire June 30. We know it sounds like a long time from now, but that's how procrastination gets ya. Plus it takes 10-14 days, so it's really not all that much time. Luckily, city clerk Miguel Del Valle has unveiled a new, fancier site where you can renew both your city sticker and your residential parking permit.