New Life Auto goes into the muffler biz

Family-run operation revives older vehicles

There's new life for New Life Auto.

Located at 4200 Stratford Road, the family-run business — consisting of owner Dave Redwine and his son Thomas, with Redwine's wife, Susan, and daughter working part time — has been running since 2000.

"We just made it; we started with nothing, one credit card, and now we've got a lot of credit cards," Dave Redwine said. "But we've made it somehow."

More recently, New Life Auto went into a dealership with 5-Star Muffler.

"We went into a dealership with them because they have a quality system, and exhaust systems are very important, especially in used cars that we deal in, which are five to 10-year-old cars," Redwine said. "We find that the catalytic converters are many times a main problem."

The company received its pipe bender in March, received training in April and is holding its grand opening now.

"What we can do with their system is, we can build 5,000 exhaust pipes that are built by a car to factory specs," Redwine said. "I don't even need the car here. I can build it, where I think the other muffler shops either build it by custom or by a plan or by a wire. "

The 5-Star Muffler system has developed a Maremont number system of 3600 muffler shocks, Redwine said.

"Their system allows us to build a pipe quickly and we can go ahead and do the pipe here without the car here, and wholesale it out to other businesses," he said. "That's where we're really going to target: Other businesses and dealerships that need an exhaust pipe, they can call us. The pipe will probably cost less than the shipping would cost."

It is Redwine's hopes that the new system will increase his business' exposure.

"We've been here four years, and the people on the other side of town don't know we're here," he said. "The people that drive by know, and almost all of our customers are people that drove by and saw what we carry out here for cars. Our cars are, for the money, better than what our competition sells for the money."

The company also sells Interstate batteries and does brake jobs, among other offerings.

"We've had some people get really excited because they wanted their three-inch custom exhaust … " Redwine said of the community's reaction to the new dealership.

It all translates into one more meaning for the business's name, which already has a couple.

"Most of the cars that I started with were dead when I got them," Redwine explained. "They either needed a transmission, a motor or they had body damage. And they were basically dead and we fixed them up … So new Life Auto is a car that's been reconditioned, but to a lot of people it instantly means a Christian business. We don't give people a new life here, but we give cars a new life."