Stolen Mercedes convertible resurfaces 27 years later in mint condition

Matthew Hansen
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Photos / Copart

Mercedes-Benz models seem to have this strange knack of getting lost and then found again. We've covered models that weren't driven for decades because the owner lost the keys, as well as models that were slated to be repainted only to apparently be totally forgotten about

Now we can add into the mix a Mercedes that was stolen, and then preserved, for almost three decades.

This Mercedes-Benz SL 500 isn't a particularly special vehicle on the face of things.

The two-tone blue underlines how quintessentially '90s it is, with beige leather and velour complimenting the colour scheme. Being a 500, this SL comes with a 5.0-litre V8 under the bonnet, making a respectable-for-the-time 240kW of power. 

A seemingly endless list of celebrities drove these things in the '90s and into the early '00s. Harrison Ford and Princess Diana had them — one even featured in Dude Where's My Car. The ubiquitous nature of this generation SL has given them an aura of nostalgia, which will likely make them a modern classic a few decades down the track.

Of course, if you've read the headline you'll know that this isn't merely a story of 'clean old car goes up for sale'. Yes, this car was stolen. 

It was November 1991, and it sat proudly on an American dealership lot (no name of said dealership is provided, unsurprisingly). The MY1992 convertible was then taken, and wasn't seen again for almost three decades.

At the time, the assumption likely would've been that the SL was shipped to the Middle East or chopped up into tiny, easily sell-able pieces. But no, instead it spent most of those years stored indoors. 

It also didn't get driven too much. Not that you'd want to drive a stolen car around too often, but the unlikely new owners only ended up putting 1180 miles (1900km) onto the odometer. 

But the car currently sits in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, listed for sale on auction site Copart, where thousands upon thousands of curious crashed, repossessed, and traded cars sit for sale in varying states of condition. Bidding at the time of writing sat at US$13,900 (NZ$20,000) — a snip for a generous and powerful slice of '90s nostalgia with a great story behind it.

We can only hope that its next 27 years are more enjoyable than its last.

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