Hey guys, I'm trying to get more info about this car. I ran across one that by the looks of it (it's parked indoors full of dust) it hasn't been moved for a while. The car looks good, body / interior look extremely good. I've read up on it and got all the specs.

I wanted to know of the specifics to look for when inspecting this car before I buy it, this would be a second car, maybe a daily if it's in really good condition I'm just not looking for a money pit (spending more than $5-6k in the first year of ownership) aside of regular maintenance (tune up/all fluid changes/brakes).

What are the things to look for in these?

I've been searching on the MB forums as well, if anyone knows of a specific forum please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help / info.

The car looks like this except it doesn't have the euro headlamps.

 

My mother had one for years... sold it in about '95... can't remember what the issues were but I can tell you the older it got, it became a very expensive car to maintain. It was a very low km car at the time. (under 100,000 km's)

Be careful, they're rare and do cost a lot to maintain.

One issue I do remember if due to the factory bodykit, rust formed on both rear fenders at the seam.

Hopefully someone else can give you more info...

Good luck!

 

Rear suspension, the standard system is a hydraulic self leveling system at the rear and if these are still in place, check to make sure they are in good order(i.e no leaks etc.) many owners choose to swap these out for a more conventional setup, something to check as they are pricey to replace. Also look out for track abused cars, Other than that they tend to have Mercedes solid build quality of the early 90's, many over here are running over 250,000kms.

 

Thanks all for the info, keep it coming!

 

<P>and they were great fun. Be careful also to look out for tranny issues, with dogleg first gear, synchros take lots of abuse. Also, a timing chain replacement is not a bad idea, especially if they are noisy at idle. Also, realy short gearing makes it sort of unpleasant on the freeway. Good times for me though....</P>

 

^^^^

thanks!

 

Bump

 

I had one and the only issue I had with it was, replacing the radiator. I sold mine with 80k miles on it. If you have all services done and have records of everything done to it, it should be overall a reliable car. Knew a few that had 150k-200k miles on them and never had any major issues, just normal wear and tear items.

 

FWIW, you could probably find out a lot on this particular model on the MBCA forum:

http://mbca.cartama.net/forumdisplay.php?f=12

Also, one of the recent issues of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car magazine had a great article on the 16-valve 190. I can't tell you which one, because I loaned it to a friend and have not seen it since.