SpeeDee Oil Review: How Do They Stack Up?
Getting an oil change should be a routine trip for your car. You shouldn’t expect to have to wait long for one of the more common service procedures for your vehicle, and any automotive store should know this like a chef knows how to scramble an egg. You may not have heard of SpeeDee Oil if you aren’t in certain sections of the country. Like other common oil and lube chain locations (Jiffy Lube, Auto Zone, and others), they promise quality service on your car at fair prices.
How does SpeeDee Oil compare to other grab-n-go repair shops? Let’s find out!
| Name | SpeeDee Oil |
|---|---|
| Years in business | 30+ |
| Number of locations | 150+ |
| Specialties | Quick oil changes and tire rotations |
| Ownership | Mostly independent franchises |
| Parent company | Grease Monkey International |
An Overview of SpeeDee Oil
SpeeDee Oil got their start in Metairie, Louisiana at the end of 1980. This came at a time when auto repair shops were dwindling in their numbers, but car sales remained steady. As a result, more people needed a place to go for oil changes and their related services rose.
As time went on, SpeeDee Oil expanded and got into other repair services that they still perform today. Their store numbers increased, and with each new franchise, the company brought more public eyes to their name.
They were sold to Midas International Corporation in 2008, which included a massive partnership to bring customers the three most requested services on their vehicles: oil changes, tire services, and brake services.
Their name officially changed to SpeeDee Oil Change & Auto Service in 2013 to help customers understand the full array of vehicle maintenance and repair that each SpeeDee location provides. The company grew even bigger in 2017, when Grease Monkey International purchased the company and allowed investors the opportunity to open an independent SpeeDee franchise.
The SpeeDee Oil name prides itself on building customer relationships on a name basis for several decades. They now have more than 150 locations across the United States, and the opportunity for franchise openings continues to increase their potential for growth.
The SpeeDee Oil Difference
SpeeDee Oil claims to be stand out from the competition for several reasons. We’ll take a look in this section and understand the message they’re attempting to send.
High-Quality Service
Ensures everyone who brings their vehicle into a franchise that they can expect the same friendly service that anyone would get from another national chain, or a local business. The image of walking into a SpeeDee store and knowing each service tech on a first-name basis is vital to the company.
Topping Off Service
With each oil change at SpeeDee Oil, you are granted a free top-off after the three months or 3,000 miles that make up the duration of your service. SpeeDee wishes to keep your car smooth while it’s running after you get a service performed with one of their locations.
Courtesy Check and Service Review
Whenever you take your car in for a service or repair at a SpeeDee Oil, you are treated to a courtesy check. This process looks at a total of 17 different points on your vehicle to ensure you don’t need anything else repaired or treated while your vehicle is being serviced. A service presentation is also included with each purchase.
Record Keeping
One of the goals is to keep you coming back as a repeat customer. By keeping a full record of what you’ve had done on your vehicle in the past, SpeeDee makes it easy to figure out what you’ll need during your next visit. Any potential recalls that you may have missed will also appear on Speedee Oil’s records as well.
Certified Technicians
No employee who picks up a set of tools at SpeeDee Oil does their job without the proper certification. The owners of each franchise ensure that every tech is ASE-certified to guarantee that your vehicle doesn’t leave the repair floor in anything less than better condition.
Franchise Ownership
A majority of Speedee Oil locations are locally owned, independently operating franchises. SpeeDee wants to convey the image that each location is owned by other families who have the same goals as anyone who brings in their car for a service at a SpeeDee location.
Services Found at SpeeDee Oil
SpeeDee Oil’s bread and butter is their 17-point oil change, but that’s not the only thing they can do to your vehicle if you need services. We’ll go through each vehicle maintenance and repair option that SpeeDee Oil offers.
17-=point Oil Change
The concept of SpeeDee Oil began with a quick and efficient oil change, something they still pride themselves on to this day. While the main point of an oil change is, of course, the oil, there’s a lot more that SpeeDee looks at when you come in every three months or 3,000 miles. Listed below are the free perks when you go to a SpeeDee Oil for your next oil change:
Prices for an oil change at SpeeDee Oil are consistent with most national chains. You can except to pay about $40 total for a conventional oil change. Coupons might be available on the SpeeDee Oil website, or you can find deals on Groupon to save even more.
SpeeDee Oil’s service can be upgraded to one of three premium options: high mileage oil, a synthetic blend of oil, or 100% synthetic oil.
Tune-Up Services
Is there a strange noise coming from your vehicle? You can bring it to SpeeDee and they will run diagnostics to determine the cause of the problem. You might also consider some of their preset tune-up services, which will look at the following components in your vehicle:
Brakes
One of the three major SpeeDee Oil services they focus on is brakes. Every driver eventually needs to repair or replace their brakes after the wear and tear they see on the road. Whether it’s bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway, or navigating inner cities, SpeeDee promises to determine the best option for your vehicle and its brakes.
The service technicians will check into brake pads, shoes, and rotors to see what your vehicle will need in order to make your brakes efficient once again. They can also look at a fluid exchange and review the overall performance of the brakes with a test drive.
Tires
Something as simple as a flat tire can ruin your day. SpeeDee Oil promises to answer any questions you have involving tires, whether it’s related to pressure or simply what size you should be using when purchasing a new set.
Not only will SpeeDee Oil identify which tires you should have on your car, you can purchase them at any of their retail locations. If you’re not thrilled with their price, you can buy tires elsewhere and have them sent to a SpeeDee location to have them installed.
Along with tire rotations and flat repairs, SpeeDee can check into your tire pressure monitoring system if the corresponding light goes on inside your vehicle’s dashboard.
Air Conditioning Services
There are few things more uncomfortable in life than sitting in a hot car, praying for a gust of wind to provide you with some relief while you’re idling. SpeeDee Oil will check into your entire air conditioning system to determine why it might not be running as cool as it should be.
If necessary, they can run through a refrigerant recycle, or recharge the existing refrigerant already in your system. Their technicians will also check evaporators and compressors to make sure you are cool and comfortable once you’re back on the road
Fluid Exchanges
Are you noticing a puddle underneath your car whenever it’s parked? SpeeDee Oil can inspect several points on your vehicle to determine if you’re sprung a leak somewhere.
Their main areas of focus for fluid inspections are oil, brakes, transmission, power steering, and coolant. You can get these fluids all flushed properly, and if necessary, SpeeDee will determine where they can patch up any leaks. The point is to get these fluids back to their proper levels before you run into a problem while on the road.
SpeeDee Oil Financing
Along with all major credit cards, SpeeDee Oil offers their own financing plan through Synchrony Bank. From time to time, special no-interest plans are available for higher purchases. If you run into a situation with your vehicle and the cost of repairs is high, SpeeDee Oil’s financing is a great choice to help you balance payments.
Synchrony’s interest rates for the SpeeDee Oil card tend to be high, so be sure to take advantage of promotional offers when they appear. The last thing you need is an added late fee, only to find out that your car needs several hundred dollars in additional repairs.
Reviewing SpeeDee Oil
After a throughout inspection of our own, we determined that SpeeDee Oil, while reliable for simple procedures like oil changes and tire inflations, doesn’t have the best reputation for major services.
Let’s start with the biggest problem: location. SpeeDee Oil can be found all over the northern half of California, the eastern side of Texas, and a significant chunk of the southern states, including the Carolinas and Florida.
Move away from any of these densely-packed SpeeDee pockets, however, and you’ll be lucky to run into anyone who has ever heard of SpeeDee, much less had their car serviced at a franchise. They are non-existent in the greater New York area, and the same can be said for Chicago and Los Angeles.
For people that can find a SpeeDee around them, the hours at any given franchise will differ, depending on owner preferences. SpeeDee Oil locations are never open on Sundays, and some locations close their doors as early as 3 PM on a Saturday.
While it’s understandable that a family-owned franchise would want to give their employees time off on weekends, there are too many other competitors readily available on Sunday to not count this as a negative. Sam’s Club not only has availability on Sunday, but an entire store full of groceries and electronics for browsing while customers wait for their vehicle.
Where Should I Go?
If you are in a section of the country where SpeeDee Oil is prominent, and nothing else reputable is around the area, check into their rates and take coupons with you for simple procedures. It’s very difficult for an automotive repair shop to mess up an oil change or tire rotation, so you shouldn’t have any problem with a quick and easy routine.
However, if your vehicle needs serious repairs, use caution when finding a SpeeDee Oil location. Since almost all their locations are independently-operating franchises, each SpeeDee has their own boss and owner. This is great for transparency, but it also means that none of these spots are required to uphold the same corporate standards that come with company-owned stores.
This isn’t to say each SpeeDee Oil is out to exploit you and your money; plenty of locations around the country have quality service technicians and owners who only care about getting you back on the road as safely and quickly as possible. Any franchise is only as good as the standards of its owner.
Ultimately, SpeeDee Oil is as good as their message and company name. If you want a quick and simple oil change, or need a basic tire rotation, they won’t cost you much, especially with a coupon. When your car begins to make noise that it shouldn’t, you might want to steer it elsewhere. Because of the relative inexperience SpeeDee Oil has in major repairs, we can’t recommend them for anything other than basic jobs.
Keep your eyes out for coupons online, and if there’s a SpeeDee Oil in your area, give them a try every three months or 3,000 miles. Otherwise, stick to your current regular spot.
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