diff --git a/lintcheck/Cargo.toml b/lintcheck/Cargo.toml
index de31c16b819e..d8154db0c5eb 100644
--- a/lintcheck/Cargo.toml
+++ b/lintcheck/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ publish = false
 cargo_metadata = "0.14"
 clap = "3.2"
 crossbeam-channel = "0.5.6"
+simplelog = "0.12.0"
 flate2 = "1.0"
+log = "0.4"
 rayon = "1.5.1"
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1.0.85"
diff --git a/lintcheck/src/config.rs b/lintcheck/src/config.rs
index b8824024e6c7..981fe2ad8121 100644
--- a/lintcheck/src/config.rs
+++ b/lintcheck/src/config.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 use clap::{Arg, ArgAction, ArgMatches, Command};
+use log::LevelFilter;
+use simplelog::{ColorChoice, CombinedLogger, Config, TermLogger, TerminalMode, WriteLogger};
 use std::env;
+use std::fs::{self, File};
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 
 fn get_clap_config() -> ArgMatches {
@@ -39,6 +42,11 @@ fn get_clap_config() -> ArgMatches {
                 .help("Run clippy on the dependencies of crates specified in crates-toml")
                 .conflicts_with("threads")
                 .conflicts_with("fix"),
+            Arg::new("verbose")
+                .short('v')
+                .long("--verbose")
+                .action(ArgAction::Count)
+                .help("Verbosity to use, default to WARN"),
         ])
         .get_matches()
 }
@@ -66,6 +74,27 @@ pub(crate) struct LintcheckConfig {
 impl LintcheckConfig {
     pub fn new() -> Self {
         let clap_config = get_clap_config();
+        let level_filter = match clap_config.get_count("verbose") {
+            0 => LevelFilter::Warn,
+            1 => LevelFilter::Info,
+            2 => LevelFilter::Debug,
+            _ => LevelFilter::Trace,
+        };
+        // using `create_dir_all` as it does not error when the dir already exists
+        fs::create_dir_all("lintcheck-logs").expect("Creating the log dir failed");
+        let _ = CombinedLogger::init(vec![
+            TermLogger::new(
+                std::cmp::min(level_filter, LevelFilter::Info), // do not print more verbose log than `INFO` to stdout,
+                Config::default(),
+                TerminalMode::Mixed,
+                ColorChoice::Auto,
+            ),
+            WriteLogger::new(
+                level_filter,
+                Config::default(),
+                File::create("lintcheck-logs/lintcheck.log").unwrap(),
+            ),
+        ]);
 
         // first, check if we got anything passed via the LINTCHECK_TOML env var,
         // if not, ask clap if we got any value for --crates-toml  <foo>
@@ -84,7 +113,7 @@ impl LintcheckConfig {
         // wasd.toml, use "wasd"...)
         let filename: PathBuf = sources_toml_path.file_stem().unwrap().into();
         let lintcheck_results_path = PathBuf::from(format!(
-            "lintcheck-logs/{}_logs.{}",
+            "lintcheck-logs/{}_results.{}",
             filename.display(),
             if markdown { "md" } else { "txt" }
         ));
diff --git a/lintcheck/src/main.rs b/lintcheck/src/main.rs
index 63d7a5e72188..cd68d1b866ad 100644
--- a/lintcheck/src/main.rs
+++ b/lintcheck/src/main.rs
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ use std::time::Duration;
 
 use cargo_metadata::diagnostic::{Diagnostic, DiagnosticLevel};
 use cargo_metadata::Message;
+use log::{debug, error, trace, warn};
 use rayon::prelude::*;
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use walkdir::{DirEntry, WalkDir};
@@ -163,10 +164,10 @@ fn get(path: &str) -> Result<ureq::Response, ureq::Error> {
         match ureq::get(path).call() {
             Ok(res) => return Ok(res),
             Err(e) if retries >= MAX_RETRIES => return Err(e),
-            Err(ureq::Error::Transport(e)) => eprintln!("Error: {e}"),
+            Err(ureq::Error::Transport(e)) => error!("{}", e),
             Err(e) => return Err(e),
         }
-        eprintln!("retrying in {retries} seconds...");
+        warn!("retrying in {retries} seconds...");
         thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(u64::from(retries)));
         retries += 1;
     }
@@ -246,7 +247,7 @@ impl CrateSource {
                         .expect("Failed to clone git repo!")
                         .success()
                     {
-                        eprintln!("Failed to clone {url} into {}", repo_path.display());
+                        warn!("Failed to clone {url} into {}", repo_path.display());
                     }
                 }
                 // check out the commit/branch/whatever
@@ -259,7 +260,7 @@ impl CrateSource {
                     .expect("Failed to check out commit")
                     .success()
                 {
-                    eprintln!("Failed to checkout {commit} of repo at {}", repo_path.display());
+                    warn!("Failed to checkout {commit} of repo at {}", repo_path.display());
                 }
 
                 Crate {
@@ -407,6 +408,8 @@ impl Crate {
 
         cargo_clippy_args.extend(clippy_args);
 
+        debug!("Arguments passed to cargo clippy driver: {:?}", cargo_clippy_args);
+
         let all_output = Command::new(&cargo_clippy_path)
             // use the looping index to create individual target dirs
             .env("CARGO_TARGET_DIR", shared_target_dir.join(format!("_{thread_index:?}")))
@@ -427,21 +430,19 @@ impl Crate {
         let status = &all_output.status;
 
         if !status.success() {
-            eprintln!(
-                "\nWARNING: bad exit status after checking {} {} \n",
-                self.name, self.version
-            );
+            warn!("bad exit status after checking {} {} \n", self.name, self.version);
         }
 
         if config.fix {
+            trace!("{}", stderr);
             if let Some(stderr) = stderr
                 .lines()
                 .find(|line| line.contains("failed to automatically apply fixes suggested by rustc to crate"))
             {
                 let subcrate = &stderr[63..];
-                println!(
-                    "ERROR: failed to apply some suggetion to {} / to (sub)crate {subcrate}",
-                    self.name
+                error!(
+                    "failed to apply some suggetion to {} / to (sub)crate {}",
+                    self.name, subcrate
                 );
             }
             // fast path, we don't need the warnings anyway
@@ -467,7 +468,7 @@ fn build_clippy() {
         .status()
         .expect("Failed to build clippy!");
     if !status.success() {
-        eprintln!("Error: Failed to compile Clippy!");
+        error!("Failed to compile Clippy!");
         std::process::exit(1);
     }
 }
@@ -571,7 +572,7 @@ fn main() {
 
     // assert that we launch lintcheck from the repo root (via cargo lintcheck)
     if std::fs::metadata("lintcheck/Cargo.toml").is_err() {
-        eprintln!("lintcheck needs to be run from clippy's repo root!\nUse `cargo lintcheck` alternatively.");
+        error!("lintcheck needs to be run from clippy's repo root!\nUse `cargo lintcheck` alternatively.");
         std::process::exit(3);
     }
 
@@ -633,8 +634,8 @@ fn main() {
         .collect();
 
     if crates.is_empty() {
-        eprintln!(
-            "ERROR: could not find crate '{}' in lintcheck/lintcheck_crates.toml",
+        error!(
+            "could not find crate '{}' in lintcheck/lintcheck_crates.toml",
             config.only.unwrap(),
         );
         std::process::exit(1);
@@ -711,8 +712,7 @@ fn main() {
         let _ = write!(text, "{cratename}: '{msg}'");
     }
 
-    println!("Writing logs to {}", config.lintcheck_results_path.display());
-    fs::create_dir_all(config.lintcheck_results_path.parent().unwrap()).unwrap();
+    println!("Writing results to {}", config.lintcheck_results_path.display());
     fs::write(&config.lintcheck_results_path, text).unwrap();
 
     print_stats(old_stats, new_stats, &config.lint_filter);