©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Car repair firm in high gear for 61 years
by PAT STOKES

Ken Glantz (left), who now runs MacLen’s, relaxes with his dad, Max Glantz, who founded the West Mt. Airy firm. (Photo by Pat Stokes)

You wouldn’t think, would you, that the parking lot for a car repair shop would be so spotless, so orderly and so downright attractive that with the addition of a few flowers and maybe a small orchestra, you could hold a party worthy of ball gowns and maybe even white tie and tails?

That’s because Max Glantz, one of the originators of MacLen’s Collision Repair Professionals, is a man with classy ideas, a producer, really, who takes pride in doing things right. I drove in onto a perfectly paved lot with beautifully marked parking slots, occupied by high-end autos awaiting the master touch of the mechanics and finishers working in the shop. There was just one place left for my sweet, much-loved LeSabre. I was glad Max didn’t notice the shallow but long dent where I’d backed into a certain truck’s very high bumper. (No harm to the truck, of course.)

We talked in Max’s neat office where, featured on one wall are pictures of those men who founded the organization as a three-way partnership: father Morris Glantz, his son Max, and brother Leonard. The name was dreamed up by idea-man Max. He simply changed Max to Mac, Leonard to Len and put them together to create a very nice sounding name, MacLen’s.

OK, got the name, now for a place. They opened in May, 1945, on the corner of Abington and Germantown in what was originally a six-car garage. Across the street was DiLauro’s Furriers. (A furrier in Chestnut Hill — something from a different era.) By the end of the Second World War, the auto industry took off and so did the car repair business. MacLen’s needed more room for work and parking. After two years, they found it, at 20 W. Allens Lane across the street from the Cresheim Arms Hotel. On this site was the carriage house for the hotel. In the early 1900s some Philadelphia city residents would come to Mt. Airy for their summer vacations and lodge at the Cresheim Arms Hotel. Many would stable their horses and carriages at 20 W. Allens Lane. But by 1947 that lifestyle was quickly fading. MacLen’s took over the space, and in what was a noteworthy example of social change, cars, elevated in status, replaced the carriages. The Cresheim Arms Hotel lasted until the late ’50s or early ’60s when it was bought by the Hare Krishna’s, (again, speaking of change), who still own it.

MacLen’s stayed and continued to grow, adding still more parking by taking over an A&P at 7226 Germantown Ave. At this point in our conversation, Max, with well-deserved pride, mentions that they’ve been serving the community for 61 years.

After completing a phone call, son Ken joins us to tell me more. He joined the firm right after college, assuming ownership and management. He lives in Lansdowne with his wife, Natalie, and their teenage children, and he is active in West Mt. Airy Neighbors.

About the work itself: MacLen’s repairs any and all types of cars, foreign and domestic. Their soaring standards cannot be matched anywhere, because whether it’s a “little scratch” or a “near total” job, everything must be done absolutely perfectly, guaranteed and warranted. Numbers of cars completed average 25 a week. A scratch or a bumper replacement may only take one day. But then there is the Porsche that slid off the road (maybe it was raining?) and rolled over. Ouch. Cost to repair? Between $30,000 and $40,000. Again Ouch! Why fix it, one may ask. It seems that particular Porsche’s value is somewhere around $100,000.

I was also curious about the kinds of people they serve. Often a husband and wife; sometimes their sons and daughters, or maybe their teenage grandkids. Ken also mentioned the occasional couple who have a third car “for the dogs.” Not show dogs, mind you, just good pets that they’d rather not have jumping about on the upholstery in the “good cars.”

Not every repair job is in the aforementioned Porsche league, of course. There are many high-end and middle level cars, whose owners need them for business or for family activities. To this end, MacLen’s keep a small fleet of rental cars. People drop off their cars-in-need-of-help, choose a substitute vehicle, and MacLen’s makes the contact with the insurance companies, all of whom recognize MacLen’s as tops, and are pleased to service and settle the claims as quickly as possible.

Really, their fame has spread to the Main Line, Willow Grove, King of Prussia and beyond. News of high quality travels afar.

Drive carefully, but if you should have a problem, call Ken at 215-247-3906.

See you on the Avenue.