Franklin Park Automotive

Ready your ride for the pending holiday road trips and holiday demolition derbies with today’s side deal: $30 gets you a synthetic oil change at Midwest Performance Cars (a $75 value). This deal includes five quarts of synthetic oil (you pay the difference for more than five quarts). Midwest Performance most often uses Elf 5w40, a fully synthetic racing-grade motor oil, but the friendly oil gurus are happy to oblige if customers have a preferred brand.

Grand Prix Car Wash transforms the dirtiest of sedans, SUVs, and convertibles into pristine and well-waxed chariots. Their speedy automated soft-cloth wash banishes the lingering traces of rain, road dirt, or rock salt, and can be complemented with à la carte detailing services such as Scotchgarding or clay-bar treatment. Many of Grand Prix's car-wash packages also carry 24-hour or five-day guarantees, allowing drivers to return for an exterior car wash and hand-dry if they should get caught in a storm or city-wide food fight after their visit.

Since 1971, Car-X Auto Service has repaired, tuned, and rejuvenated auto-wagons with an array of alleviating automotive services. Pour your car a refreshing five-quart glass of oil change, revolve your ride's rubbers with a tire rotation, and switch blades with windshield-wiper replacements. The courteous and auto-savvy Car-X mechanics will also check to see if your car battery is charged and healthy. Finally they'll give a thorough safety inspection to ensure your brakes and seat belts are in tip-top condition and that there are no Latvian yodeling quartets living in your trunk.

Most car-wash lounges don't give customers a hotel-lobby vibe. However, the one at Tempus Auto Spa gets pretty close, surrounding guests with marble countertops, exposed-brick walls, and large windows that cast sunlight onto posh furniture. As they wait here for their vehicle, visitors can sip gourmet coffee or browse the Internet at computer stations. The designer bathrooms' warm colors add to the ambiance—even they are part of the venue's mission to pamper cars and people simultaneously.

CS magazine highlighted Tempus Auto Spa as one business that "make[s] daily duties super swanky." As its waiting area charms clients with all that's chic, so its services indulge vehicles with careful cleaning and detailing. The technicians rely on their own meticulousness instead of traditional car-wash machinery and giant car dunk tanks, even refusing to use mitts and towels for more than a single hand wash. The same manual attention goes into their most comprehensive treatments—the Spankin New Look complete exterior and interior detail, for example, includes an engine cleaning, which technicians can do with steam or by hand.

Almost a century ago, it was 1914 and William J. Cassidy was gazing out from his livery stable to watch the newfangled automobiles rumble past on Roosevelt Road. He knew then that he’d been right to expand from shoeing horses to also servicing tires. Never having children, Will took his 16-year-old nephew, Hugh, under his wing in the venture. When Will retired, Hugh took over and kept the company afloat even during the bleakest days of the Depression and WWII. Hugh’s six sons all followed in the family footsteps, opening additional locations in the suburbs, and then their children opened even more.

Today, those descendants operate 15 Cassidy Tire & Service locations throughout the city and suburbs. The Cassidy experts keep vehicles running smoothly as they grow old by practicing a full range of other auto services, from rotating tires to changing oil and flushing transmissions.

Technicians at the 6,000-square-foot West Loop Auto Spa hand wash cars from bumper to bumper with professional-grade products. During full-service washes, the technicians go the extra mile to clean glass, vacuum interiors, and wipe down the dash and rims, while customers test-drive the shop's complimentary WiFi. With their detailing services, they shampoo all mats and carpets, clean leather, and finish crossword puzzles tucked under the seats. In addition to washing and detailing, they also offer dent-removal services and window tinting.