Business & Tech

Rollie's Car Care a Motor for the Community

Rollie's pampers its customers in New Lenox with quality and honesty.

If there is such a thing as a motor to the community of New Lenox, it's Rollie's Car Care Center.

An engine to the old town neighborhood of locally-owned small businesses, this automotive repair shop has been servicing the community since the late 1950s. The shop specializes in automotive maintenance and repair, computer electronics, general maintenance and brakes.

Rollie Cagwin opened the shop within the confines of the now defunct Sinclair gas station that once occupied the southwest corner of Cedar and Maple Roads.  Next, Rollie's took up residence in connection with a Conoco gas station—that company is gone now too. In 1976, Rollie built the building in its present location, 1227 N. Cedar Road.

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Current owner Denny Cagwin, Rollie's son, remembered that as a teenager, he and his brothers all worked at the station. There was never a question of whether the boys would work at the station; it was expected. That's how small business was operated. Everybody in the family had a hand in changing the oil, adjusting a carburetor, repairing a tire or listening to an engine purr.   

Jenny and Denny Cagwin revealed how the store is a symbol for their life as small business owners as well as for their marriage of 37 years.

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"We're here every day, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We start the morning talking about the business over breakfast and work together all day. It's our home away from home,"  said Jenny Cagwin, sitting in the what the couple refers to as the living room at the front of the repair shop.

The decor is very 1970s, she said with a smile, but it's clean. The leather furniture and minimal tables topped with magazines continue to provide customers with a comfortable place to rest while their vehicles are jacked up on the lifts.

It's as much like home as a store can get, she said. If the customer is game, the couple's 65-pound, 13-year-old boxer, Angel, is likely to lay at their feet or snuggle close in search of a pat.  

With Jenny stationed at the window, she said a lot of women customers feel more comfortable.

"They don't like talking necessarily to a technician," she said. "They tell me the car makes a bonk, bonk, bonk sound and then it sputters. And that's what I write down. Denny trusts me for that (information) so he knows what he's looking for."     

The couple officially took over the business in 1987. Their son Jeff is the only other full-time mechanic besides Denny, and Jenny runs the office. She takes care of the books, customer service, phones and billing. Like Denny, Jeff has been coming to the shop since he was 3 years old. The dog comes every day too.

The key to success is likely founded on the idea that "both of us have a deep respect for the business. We both respect what Rollie built here in the town where we grew up in," Jenny said.

There's a reputation for quality, fairness and honesty that the Cagwin's insist on maintaining. The shop's customers become friends, and the owners are looking to make more friends by being responsive to their needs.

Hardly a day goes by when the shop doesn't get a call from a stranded motorists. It's almost always a stressful moment for the caller on the other end, but Jenny takes care to settle them down. She lets them know that Denny or Jeff will be there shortly.

About six months ago, Denny recalled with laughter, "We got a call from a guy out on (Interstate) 80. He was in a huge, slow-moving, back up, but he got a flat tire. He drove it as far as he could on the flat. He'd change it himself." Then he noticed that the spare was flat too. "He rolled the spare about a quarter mile to the exit at Maple. I brought the truck out and filled the tire. The guy said, 'What do I owe you?' I told him nothing. It was my good deed for the day."

Until 2002, when the rules got a bit stiffer, Rollie's towed vehicles for the and Illinois State Police District 5.  An uninterrupted night at home was more like a dream, and Thanksgiving days, "those were terrible," Jenny said. Still today, Rollie's tows for short durations. "Snowy days are the worst," she added.    

As a parent and grandfather himself, Denny said he drops just anything to go to the aid of a mom who accidentally locked her keys in the car along with a crying baby, though that doesn't happen too much anymore because the locks don't engage if the key is in the engine.

And he's been the first one on the scene to calm down a lot of teenagers in the aftermath of a car accident.

As for customer service, Jenny said, a lot of customers trust Rollie's because it's been here for so long.

"They call me from other shops and ask me for a second opinion," Denny said. "A lot of times I find out that they didn't need all those pricey repairs. So they keep coming back, and now their kids come here too. "We treat people the way the way we want to be treated."

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