$200 to $500 and generally under an hour of work once the correct pane is in hand. The catch on newer cars, and Northern Liberties has plenty of them, is that not every door window is tempered any more: laminated side glass is a different part at a different price and it fails in a completely different way. Call 215-608-1108 with the year, make, model and which window, and you will know which of the two you own before you drive up.
4.6★ on Google — 94+ reviews
For decades every window on a car except the windshield was tempered: hit it and it collapses into blunt cubes. That is still true of most vehicles on the street, and it is why a break-in leaves a car that looks catastrophic and is usually an hour's work. On newer cars, though, manufacturers increasingly fit laminated glass in the front doors, sometimes all round, for cabin quiet as much as security. Laminated side glass behaves like a small windshield. It does not fall out; it stars, sags and stays in the frame, held together by the plastic interlayer, which is why some cars arrive with a window that is obviously destroyed and still keeping the rain out.
The difference matters to you in three ways. The part costs more, so a laminated door glass sits toward the upper end of the $200 to $500 band rather than the lower. The cleanup is easier, because there are no cubes down inside the door, though there is usually a line of fine fragments along the belt. And it is harder to tell from a photograph, so the trim gets asked for rather than guessed. Whichever kind you have, the new pane is set square to the frame and the seal checked along its whole length before the door card goes back on, because a window seating a fraction out will whistle from about 40 onward.
“Rich is amazing! Helped me with a broken window. He was able to get me in same day and did beautiful work at an incredible price point. I literally tell everyone now to go to him if they need anything done.”
More on this service: Side & Rear Window Replacement at Auto Glass Installed →
The pattern here is easy to read once you notice where the cars are. Residents with a space under the building rarely see this at all. The calls come from cars left on the street and in the surface lots around 2nd Street, Spring Garden and the blocks toward Delaware Avenue, and they cluster after evenings out rather than spreading evenly through the night. That is worth knowing when you park: a car standing on a busy commercial block for four hours after dark is in a different category from the same car in a garage. When it does happen, the run up to East Columbia Avenue is short enough that a car smashed overnight is normally sealed again before lunch, as long as the call lands when the shop opens at eight rather than at four in the afternoon.
Same service, same price, other Fishtown neighborhoods:
Yes. That is laminated glass doing exactly what it is designed to do, holding together on its interlayer instead of falling into the car. What it is not doing any more is any of its other jobs. It has almost no strength left, it will sag further every time the door shuts, it distorts what you see out of it, and the seal along the top will not sit properly against a broken edge. It is genuinely less urgent than an open hole, so you are not stranded, but it is a replacement rather than something to live with.
Look at the bottom corner of the window, where there is an etched or printed panel of small text. It will say either tempered or laminated, along with the manufacturer and a set of approval codes. If the glass is already broken and you cannot read it, the trim level and the VIN will tell us, and there is a simpler clue as well: if the window shattered and stayed in one piece in the frame, it is laminated, and if the sidewalk is covered in small cubes, it is tempered.
Tell us the vehicle and the glass that's damaged — you'll see your price instantly, and we'll hold it for you.
Odd job the widget can't price? Send us the details and a human will quote it fast.
The instant quote is the fastest way to a price. For unusual jobs, fleet work, or anything that needs a human, use the form — we answer fast during shop hours.
| Monday – Friday | 08:00 – 17:00 |