Bill has a very good point about inspecting 190SLs prior to purchase. This is one car where it is less expensive buying as nice of one as you can find instead of a fix-it upper, unless you can easily do the work yourself or don't object to having a restoration shop spend up to 3000 hours on it for you.

After I rebuilt the engine and transmission a Benz restoration spent 2,100 hours on my car. When I bought mine it had no visible rust, but I ended up replacing the nose, three of four fenders, floor pans and most of the support rails. This car requires more time to repair than the 300SL.

If the engine wasn't using MB neutral Ph antifreeze expect cylinder head problems between cylinders 2 and 3. The aluminum head oxidizes there letting coolant into the cylinders. It can be heliarced and machined to repair or replaced with a new head ($4,200). I bought three used heads before I found one that was usable and this was 18 years ago.

Again they are wonderful automobiles. I've driven mine 200,000 miles in the past 15 years to Florida, Newfoundland, Alaska and places in between. In addition to touring I had it on two raceways last year, drove it at its 5,750 rpm redline for several days, then drove it 743 miles home without a single problem.

You are welcome to come by and see mine. We both live in southeastern Virginia.

Cheers,

Robby