1989 Mercedes-Benz W201 190E – Today’s German Tempter

By: James Robinson, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 07.06.2017

The definition of over-engineered

The Mercedes-Benz 190E was an iconic and important model for the Stuttgart firm, and was in production for more than a decade from December 1982 to April 1993.

In that time over 1.87 million 190Es were produced, making it a deeply successful model in both Continental Europe and in the United States.

And it needed to be successful, because Mercedes-Benz had spent an absolute fortune developing the 190E, over 2 Billion Deutschmark in total.

Luckily however, this heavy investment showed, as the 190E came with a plethora of innovative and exciting engineering feats all aimed at making the ‘Baby Benz’ a driver’s dream.

For a start, Mercedes developed an entirely new, ground breaking 5-link independent rear suspension set-up that was designed to make the car out-handle its rivals from BMW and Audi.

The Mercedes-patented design was so successful in fact that it was subsequently used in a number of models including the next generation C-Class and E-Class, and the design is still used in some Benz models today.

Another amazing achievement of the 190E was how aerodynamic it was. That’s right, despite its very boxy dimensions, the 190E had a remarkably low drag coefficient of just 0.33. Mercedes engineers were able to achieve this thanks to the car spending a fair amount of time in a wind tunnel over the course of its development.

There were a number different engines and displacements and three different transmissions offered in the 190E over the course of its production life.

Donks included a 1.8lt, 2.0lt and 2.3lt 8-valve inline 4-cylinder, 2.3lt and 2.5lt 16-valve inline 4-cylinder, 2.6lt inline 6-cylinder, 2.0lt and 2.2lt in-line 4-cylinder diesel, 2.5lt inline 5-clyinder diesel and a 2.5lt inline 5-cylinder turbo diesel.

The three transmissions offered were a 4-speed manual, 5-speed ‘dog-leg’ manual and a 4-speed ‘4G-Tronic’ automatic.

This particular 190E is a 1989 model with the 2.6lt inline 6-cylinder and 4-speed automatic gearbox. According to the seller, it has 208250km on the clock from new.

The vehicle appears to be in impressive condition both inside and out, and the seller states the vehicle has a full service history with documentation.

The 190E is being sold for $8950, which is on the steep end of what these vehicles are being sold for in the classifieds.

However, whichever way you look at it, this car is a bit of a bargain considering the overall condition and the sheer amount of engineering cred on offer. Anyone keen on this Stuttgart stunner can view the full listing here.

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