About Us
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We specialize in a wide variety of cosmetic repairs for autos and boats. Our training and versatility has even led us to service home furniture, restaurant seats, and RV’s! In addition to our cosmetic repair services, we utilize our great location for Consignment Auto Sales, Our dealership knowledge for Free Lease Inspections, and our secured property for Outdoor Storage for Semi’s, RV’s, Boats, Trailers, and more.
OUR VALUES
COMPANY HISTORY
Phil (owner of Alien Car Care) bought a franchise, MARS, and began intense training on a variety of cosmetic repairs at the MARS headquarters in Texas. “MARS” was an acronym for Mobile Appearance Reconditioning Services. Phil began his one person owner/operator franchisee, “Gestwicki’s MARS”, and began servicing used car lots throughout Kalamazoo in his mobile trailer.
As Phil established a reputation for quality work and customer service, his business began to grow. Additional employees were hired and trained by Phil to assist in meeting the needs of the dealerships.
Corporate MARS dissolved, leaving behind many MARS operators across the country. Phil continued servicing his dealerships and growing his business despite the corporate fallout. We changed our name to Alien Car Care to reflect the difference. This name change allowed us to keep the original MARS logo (our cool alien dude) and helped our web search-ability by setting us apart from the planet mars and the infamous MARS candy company.
Gestwicki’s MARS continued to grow and expanded business into Battle Creek and the Greater Kalamazoo area. Dealerships began referring Phil to their customers, opening the door to the retail world. As the business and team of employees continued to grow, the need for another mobile unit was quickly becoming needed. Another previous franchise owner, graciously donated a large amount of supplies and a very well used mobile work van. “Marv” as our team refers to him, traveled from Texas to Michigan fully loaded with supplies to help take the company another step further in growing.
Alien Car Care comes to life! In order to handle the growing business and to become more accessible to retail customers, Phil purchased our current shop in Galesburg. After completely renovating the office space, the work-shop, and landscaping we started advertising and trying to get word out that we FINALLY had a commercial location. The sky is the limit.
Alien Car Care continues to expand into the retail world, making improvements to our team and our facility all along the way. Our team still services our wholesale lots and now has a regularly staffed office to assist retail customers as well. We’ve added more services too, such as OCD Detailing Packages and Consignment Sales. An outdoor patio space was created to provide customers with the option of enjoying the outdoors while waiting for their repairs.
PHILIP J GESTWICKI
(Founder of Alien Car Care)
Born and raised on the East coast in the state of Delaware, I had plans of moving one day to some far off, beautiful place like Wyoming or Utah. I’m passionate about the outdoors and am an avid fisherman. In an ironic turn of events, I settled for Michigan because of family ties and the spontaneous meeting of a special girl who lived there as well (who later became my wife 🙂 ).
Moving to Michigan in 2003, I knew I had better start that painstaking quest of finding a true career. I had a degree in environmental science with a couple years experience and also had worked in the cell phone industry for a number of years. While looking for different options I found I enjoyed the combination of artwork and “hands on” field work that an automotive reconditioning career offered. I basically turned my hobby into my profession.
Now, years later, I love the independence and rewarding work Alien Car Care provides. Hopefully, I can add more team members and become a household name in the SW Michigan area! Even in this very difficult and economically torn region, I have been very blessed and able to stay busy.
When not working, my wife and I enjoy all that God’s beautiful outdoors has to offer: camping, fishing, hiking, kayaking, and skiing. I also am an active member of Radiant Church and serve with the youth there. I look forward to getting to know more customers every day!