Everyone remembers their first car fondly, even if it was an old piece of junk or rust-bucket that you could barely afford. Once you’ve outgrown your first car, though, there is always your ‘first love’—the car that you scraped and scrimped and begged and borrowed to get your hands on, that you polished and kept as perfectly clean as possible, while swearing you’d never trade it in for another car.
For one wife and mother, that car was a bright red 1985 Mercedes SL coupe.
A Love Story in the Making
When Julio Sanchez met his wife in the 1990s, one of the first things he noticed was the car that she was driving—a sexy bright red Mercedes SL coupe. As they got closer, eventually getting married and starting a family, they came to the decision that selling the Mercedes in favor of a more family-friendly car was the best decision that they could make at the time. After all, where are you going to put a child’s car seat in a little two-seater coupe?
Now, nearly 20 years later, Julio had no better Mother’s Day gift than reuniting a woman with her long-lost car.
Scavenger Hunt
It’s not too hard to find a 1985 Mercedes Benz SL Coupe—a quick Google Search shows dozens of these cars for sale on various classic car websites—but Julio Sanchez didn’t want just any coupe. He wanted his wife’s original convertible back. After months of searching, countless phone calls and a road trip from his home in Tampa, Florida to Georgia, he finally found it—the original cherry red convertible that his wife had loved so much.
Surprise!
Sunday, May 8, marked Mother’s Day in 2016. Sanchez had the car delivered, and his wife woke up Mother’s day morning to her favorite classic car in the driveway, complete with a bright red bow on top! It’s easily the best Mother’s Day ever and definitely the best Mother’s Day we could ever imagine!
Happy Endings All Around!
Sanchez’s story of being reunited with a lost car isn’t the only one that’s touched our hearts lately. Let us tell you the story of Terry Dietrich, a woman 62 years young who had a brief but fantastic love affair—with a 1972 Corvette Stingray. It was a brief affair because, six months after she purchased the car of her dreams, it was stolen!
This tale has a happy ending: 43 years after the car was stolen from her, someone called her out of the blue to let her know that it had been found. Terry had little hope that she would be able to get the car back since the insurance had already paid for the car after it was stolen, but to her surprise, her original insurance agent came out of retirement just to deliver the car—best birthday gift ever!
Do you have any stories of being reunited with cars that you had thought lost forever? Let us know in the comments below!