My neighbor has caught a little of the MB bug since I bought mine. However he doesn't want something so big. He's thinking of a 190E. I don't know these cars all that well. What were the engines in these car's? I know in '86-'87 they offered a 16v 4 cyl., but were all the engines 4's? Any particular years to watch out for, what kind of miles do these cars get up to? He saw a couple in the paper here. One is a 1989 98K miles for $7K. Then there was another one which had very high miles, a 1991 with 184K for $6500. Both claim to be dealer serviced.

The best one for life, in my humble opinion, is the 91-93 190E 2.6. This is a 6 cylinder engine...I would get one with lower mileage and with records. Have it checked by a pro.

Do these 6 cyl. engines require valve adjustments like my 617 diesel? What kind of miles can one expected out of these engines.

The 190 E 2.6 from 1987 to 1993 are very reliable. The durability of the 103 engine in these cars is legendary.
My 190e 2.6 has close to 200,000 miles and I feel it can go for at least another 200,000 at this point. It starts right up, idles perfect, feels solid and has given me very few problems. The rubber bushings may need to be changed at the age of the car be 10years old but, the car will be around for a very long time.

The only maintenance that you will need is to change the oil frequently as well as all other fluids. Tune ups would be spark plugs every 15,000 to 20,000 miles. Distributor cap and rotor as needed. The bosch units last a long time.

In europe the 190E came with several engine-types of which most were not available in the US.
I think the Us have the 4 cylinder: 2.3E 8v, 2.3E 16v and 6 cylinder 2.6E 12v.
Additional to those engines we had also the 1.8E, 2.0E, 2.0(not E). All these were 4 cylinder 8 valves.
The 190 is a very reliable car (as long as it is serviced well) and is able to last a lot of miles. I had a 190 2.0 Diesel and drove it up to 600k km without any expensive repairs!
The 2.3 or 2.6 will both do well...and NO, the engine does not require valve adjustments; it has hydraulic "rocker arms" or however they are called.
Valve seals, however, need to be renewed occasionally cause they tend to get hard after some time/miles which will cause some oil-consumption.

greetingz,