The car that started it all! Subaru Legacy

The Subaru Legacy had a busted transmission and some deferred maintenance issues. After about 45 hours of labor and $2,800 in parts, the Legacy was revived! Huge thanks to friends who spontaneously showed up for the cleaning party before we gifted it back to its owner.

First officially donated car: 2004 Chevy Tahoe

A kind soul donated their Tahoe to us that had been sitting in their yard for years. We first thought it only needed some brake work and quickly accepted their offer to donate. Lesson learned: inspect a vehicle before accepting it 😉 Turns out the entire engine needed to be rebuilt, and there was concerning frame rust that needed to be remediated (Wes doesn’t do body work, but thankfully a friend is a welder and saved the day in fixing the rust issues).

The quickest revival thus far: 2005 Toyota Matrix

A really sweet couple from the south of Richmond found us online. They had donated another vehicle years ago, wanted to continue their generosity, and somehow stumbled across our website. This vehicle was BEAUTIFULLY maintained and garage-kept… what a blessing! Wes and his team (we now have about 5 guys who show up every Tuesday night to donate their time and car skills) fixed a small oil leak, put on new struts, replaced hub caps, replaced the busted rear window lift supports, and fixed the motor in the driver’s window. Overall, we spent about $1,300 on repairs/enhancements. Then my dad and I gave the car a spa day, and now it’s ready to go to a new family! We’re networking with ReEstablish Richmond, and it’s looking like this vehicle will be going to a refugee family pretty soon! Stay tuned for more details.

JUNE 2025 UPDATE: The Matrix has been gifted to an incredibly sweet refugee family from the Democratic Republic of Congo! They’ve been in the US for a couple years and none of them have owned a vehicle before. With the help of ReEstablish Richmond’s transportation program, one of the daughters successfully completed driving school and got her license. We’re so excited to be able to help her get to and from work more easily, and it was a joy to meet the whole family during the vehicle gifting. The original donors joined us for the handoff as well, which was really special for everyone involved.

Proof that good can come from bad intentions: 2012 Chevy Malibu

One of our closest friends donated this car to us. It had a rather tumultuous background… our friend was dating a guy who turned out to not be a great guy… after the breakup, stalking and vehicle tampering ensued. No mechanic could figure out why the car would suddenly stop running. Our friend bought another car but kept this one around and wasn’t sure why, just never got rid of it. Fast forward a few years to her hearing about our vision for Revive the Drive, and she immediately knew this is what she wanted – for her car to be revived and given to someone who needs a fresh start. What was meant for evil is going to be used to change someone’s life for good, and we’re so stoked for that!

AUGUST 2025 UPDATE: The Malibu is ready for donation, and we’ve selected a recipient! Wes and his team worked really hard on finding all the random things that were wrong with the car, and we’re happy to say it’s now running great! We spent $4,025 total on repairs. Some of the things done include new windshield, head gasket, timing chain system, cam gears, water pump, starter, battery, steering wheel, rear brakes/rotors, and all 4 door locks.  Wes did an oil change and bought key fobs for the two sets of car keys. Anna-Lisa bought some accessories for the car like emergency kit, first aid kit, sunglasses holder, phone charger. The recipient has a young child, so we bought her a booster seat too!

The recipient is a community college student who we learned about from our partner organization, Great Expectations. She grew up in the foster care system, which has led to quite a bit of instability in her life. She’s a single mom of 4 kids, and they’ve found stable housing after a season of homelessness. She’s hoping to graduate with a business administration degree and has a dream to build a hybrid-business, where she will bring together multiple small business to help support the community. Not having a vehicle was a big burden on her and her family, so we’re thrilled to be able to help her out in this way.

Lots of room for lots of kids: 2010 Ford Expedition

A couple from our church reached out to donate their family vehicle, since their kids are all grown up now. Let me tell you: I was BLOWN AWAY at how clean this vehicle is, after having been driven by FOUR teenage / college boys. Huge shout out to them for taking such good care of their car! We’re hoping to be able to flip this one really quickly; from initial inspection, not much needs to be repaired. It’s a massive vehicle that seats 8 people, and there is definitely a need with some of our potential recipients who have large families, so this one will be very easy to match up with a new family to love it.

The challenge of finding someone who can drive stick shift: 2014 Ford Focus

This car has an incredible story. A woman’s dementia was progressing, and she was seeming to hyper-focus on what was going to happen to her car (which by the way was extremely well cared for and very low mileage). Her family reached out to us and told us that it would be awesome if their mom could know that her car was given to someone who could benefit from it. We happily accepted the car and were thrilled it was in such amazing shape! Two weeks and only $900 later, it was ready for a new home! But then there was this tiny, tiny problem – we didn’t have any potential recipients who knew how to drive stick shift. I was worried this car would sit with us for a really long time until we could find someone who could drive it. But less than a week later, one of our partners from Great Expectations let us know that one of their students could drive manual cars, and was in desperate need for a vehicle as she had a new job starting in a couple weeks and needed a car to get to and from work and continue attending classes. The timing lined up PERFECTLY! We were able to get the car to her right before she started her first day of work 🙂 And what’s more is the recipient is in school for nursing, and the family who donated the car also had nursing experience. We just love it when small details like that line up. The timing of this donation, repair, and delivery is one more example of how things do work out, if we just keep taking the next right step.

Coming up: 2008 Honda Pilot

On deck is a Honda Pilot with 200k miles and an overheating problem. Wes and his team will run diagnostics and then hopefully give it another life of many more miles!

Coming up: 1998 Honda CRV

On deck is a Honda CRV.

Richmond: where everyone knows everyone: 2013 GMC Acadia

On deck is massive SUV: A GMC Acadia.

Ruh-Roh! Everyone, meet Scooby! The beloved (one owner) 2001 Hyundai Accent