Downtown Chicago Auto Dealerships – BY FOOT (& A Freebie)

I was approached by the good folks at GPS My City to help promote the launch of their new service in Chicago. GPSmyCity.com offers some of the most interesting self-guided city walks and walking tours in Chicago. Their Chicago city walk apps on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad turns a traveler into his own tour guide.


GPSMyCity Chicago App Home Page

Powered by the GPS technology, each walking tour offers accurate turn-by-turn directions to famous attractions, monuments and interesting sights as well as hidden gems; as if you had brought along a local guide. This got me thinking – what would be a cool walking tour of Chicago that I’ve never done? That’s when the headlight went off, how about a walking tour of Downtown Chicago car dealerships? If you’re a car geek, you’ll think is cool. Everyone else, just scroll to where the free offer comes into play. For this tour, I focused on the dealerships themselves not the products inside as I didn’t want this to be a 12-part story (I love cars). Also, this post is devoid of any stops at Saab dealerships since we don’t have any new retailers in or around Downtown, which is fine because there is plenty of other great car candy to wet your automotive appetite.

START/STOP #1
For this tour, I started at my front door (777 North Michigan Avenue) and walked West on Chicago Avenue two blocks, and then took a left on a Rush Street and walked two more blocks up for the first stop – Bentley Gold Coast and Lamborghini Chicago (834 Rush Street). As the name implies, this place is just amazing. Talk about dream building… the neon green Lambo in the window with the doors up takes your breath away.



STOP #2
Next, I proceeded four blocks North on Rush street into the Viagra Triangle, and then took a left on Maple, walking two blocks West on Maple to the intersection of Maple and Clark. Here is where you find a foursome of dealerships – Fletcher Jones Volkswagen, Honda and Audi, and Perillo BMW (Perillo’s address is 1035 N. Clark Street if you are GPS’ing it). All are really nice stores, but the Audi/VW dealership just opened after a fresh remodel and it looks nice. Plus, the S5, A8 and R8 Audi’s are pretty sick. If you happen to need your VW serviced, ask for Chad Holsinger in the Service Department. He’s super-platinum certified and one of the Bears Suit Crew.





Perillo also has a pre-owned “Saab Outlet” on Chicago Avenue, but I’ve visited it and the space is not spectacular.

STOP #3
From Perillo BMW, continue seven blocks South on Clark Street to Erie, then take a right on Erie and go one block, and then a left on LaSalle Street to Berman’s Infiniti of Chicago (640 N. LaSalle Street). This place has a HUGE showroom and some pretty slick pre-owned as well. And being right near Portillos (1000 W. Ontario Street), you can grab some ribs for lunch (best ribs in Chicago in my opinion, they are also know for their hot dogs).



STOP #4
After a visit to Infiniti of Chicago, I had the long haul ahead of me, walking 15 blocks South on LaSalle Street to Jackson Street, taking a left on Jackson for four blocks, and then a right on Wabash Avenue. Then I walked 15 blocks South on Wabash to what was the surprise of the trip – Willow Automotive (2020 S. Wabash). I had never even heard of this place and it is SWEET. Willow advertises itself as Chicago’s premiere automotive service and tuning center, offering sales and purchase of collectible automobiles, precision service for German and specialty interest vehicles and tuning solutions and chassis dyno service. W.O.W. Willow isn’t open on Saturdays when I did this tour, but they are open Mon.-Fri. 9-5. I will be stopping by… I could see one of my favorite cars, a Lamborghini LM2000 through the glass. Awesome.



STOP #5
From Willow, walk another 12 blocks South on Wabash Avenue to 24th Street, take a left on 24th Street and then end at Michigan Avenue and Joyce Ford (2401 S. Michigan Avenue).



What makes Joyce Ford so cool is that it is the only dealer left in Chicago’s historic Motor Row. Motor Row was home to as many as 116 different makers of automobiles including Ford, Buick, Fiat and Cadillac. Designed by architects such as Holabird & Roche, Philip Maher and Albert Kahn, the buildings located on Motor Row demonstrate how the automobile showroom and related product and service buildings have evolved over time.



This entire section of South Michigan has a cool, old-school car dealership look to it and is believed to be the largest, intact, early "automobile row" in the U.S. Read more about Chicago’s Motor Row here.

And that wraps the tour… I headed North on Michigan Avenue back towards my place but where would your Chicago auto adventure take you? To help you plan your adventure, the first five people who correctly answer seven of the 10 questions below on Chicago will win three free city walk iPhone applications developed by GPSmyCity.com to any city of their choice. Email your answers to me(ryan[dot]eichler[at]gmail[dot]com) and the first five with at least seven of 10 correct win. Good luck!

1) Chicago is known under several names. How isn't it called?
a) the Windy City
b) the City of Big Shoulders
c) the City of Lights

2) Chicago’s downtown area is known as ... .The nickname refers to the area encircled by the elevated train tracks.
a) the Loop
b) the Hook
c) the Ellipse

3) Chicago is the birthplace among others of McDonalds, the chewing gum giant Wrigley’s and the cell phone giant Motorola. What sport has been invented here:
a) 16-inch softball
b) baseball
c) squash

4) At the time of its completion in 1974 the Willis Tower was the tallest building in the world, surpassing the World Trade Center towers in New York, and it held this rank for nearly 25 years, How many states are visible from its roof?
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5

5) Chicago is the third largest city in United States, its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland,"being the 27th most populous metropolitan area in the world. What American cities are more populous than Chicago?
a) New York and Houston
b) Los Angeles and New York
c) Philadelphia and New York

6) Chicago is home to the largest population of ... in the world, except Warsaw:
a) Poles
b) Czechs
c) Serbs

7) In 1900, Chicago successfully completed a massive and highly innovative engineering project. Since then the Chicago River is the only river in the world that:
a) flows North in the Northern Hemisphere
b) flows backward
c) the only river in the world that flows both northwards and southwards across the line of the Equator

8) Each year, the Chicago River is dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick is the patron saint of what country?
a) Ireland
b) Scotland
c) Poland

9) The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world. Which of these painters was not an impressionist:
a) Monet
b) Cezanne
c) Dali

10) The University of Chicago is the site of the world's first:
a) atomic reaction
b) unmanned flight
c) extraterrestrial encounter

Disclosure: GPSMyCity offered me five free downloads of the app for creating a relevant post on my site.