190E 2.6...any with leather?
 

I work in a luxury dealer bodyshop, and have been offered 2 190E 2.6's for sale...both are collision-damaged and it wouldn't make any sense to pay for a retail repair, but with my discount it could make sense to fix them.

Several questions:
1. do any have leather upholstery? These are both MBTex
2. do the door panels tend to fall apart? one looks OK, the other's vinyl door trim is pulling loose from the underlying structure
3. what issues should I look for on these cars? what problems can I expect?

Leather was offered as an option on the 190e (with the exception of the Sportline and/or Limited Edition models, also the 86-87 16V had it). That said, it is quite a rare option, almost all 190e's came with MB Tex.

The biggest thing on the 2.6 (m103) is the head gasket/water pump. Other than that they are great cars that will last a long, long time.

As for the door panels, it seems that in any climate where it gets excessively hot the door panels tend to peel away from the door, especially around the arm rests. I have not seen anyone come up with a good fix as the MB Tex must shrink with age and it is nearly impossible to get it back into place correctly.

If you are familiar with the 124 (as your signature indicates) the 201 will be second nature as it is the 124's little brother.

Check out www.190revolution.net for a forum completely about the w201.

MB Tex was standard, leather optional - not sure what fraction have leather.

I'm not aware of any door panel problems, but with any 15-20 year old car, condition has to do with the quality and conscienceousness of owners and quality of past maintenance and repairs.

Once cars get down to five grand or less, owners are rarely willing to spend much on them and just drive them into the ground. Only when they become "collectible" and begin to appreciate will significant effort be put into repair and restoration. I don't expect 190s to ever achieve collectible status, and they, unfortunately, have become "beaters" for many.

The typical example that has probably been through three or more owners and has over 150K miles likely has a lot of deferred maintenance and a number of problems ready to bite you, and proper repair is usually not cheap. Sometimes you get lucky and find a simple solution, but many overlook good diagnosis and just throw parts at problems until they get fed up with the amount they have spent and dump them. A number of systems are fairly complicated and require considerable system knowledge to properly and effectively troubleshoot and repair.

The best examples would be original owner low mileage cars with maintenance and repair records, especially if the owner is a "car guy".

The current NADA Older Used Car Guide lists "retail" values of $2550 for a '87 190E 2.6 to $4800 for a '93 190E 2.6 (2.3s are about 10 percent less). Really fine, documented examples should do better, but on average most look pretty thrashed at this point in time and aren't worth much.

Duke

A note on the door panels. In my experience, 1990 and earlier 190E's don't suffer from the door panel problem too much, however, 1991 - 1993 models almost universally do.

The 1989 has 99K miles and some records, the 1991 has 127K, no records, but is clean as a pin...both have matching Michelins, which I'll take as a sign that someone cared about these cars. The 89 also has a big Mercedes-brand battery, the other a little Interstate.

The seller of the 89 has 10 or so Mbz's, from a 1970 250 sedan he bought new to a W124 wagon, so I have to presume he knows how to maintain the car.

The seller of the 91 is a divorced woman who bought the car from the original owner 9 months ago and for lack of a better description, is dumb as a rock.

I have one kiddo who is driving, and another who will be getting his license in march, and I thought these could be good el-cheapo cars that would be reasonably safe for the genius children.

Thats about the same attiude my father used a few years ago on me and my sister. I'm 22 now and the 190e has served our family well.

I think you'll be happy with either car, it sounds like they have been maintained as well as could be expected.

Good luck...you should take some pics and post them.

I am one of the lucky ones that has leather in my 91 190e 2.6. Too bad I cannot drive it yet. I have been working on a head gasket R&R for about a year now (as time permits).

I realize that MBTex wears like iron, but I always found the notion of a luxury car with vinyl upholstery sort of cheesy. As an aside, why is it that MBUSA pushed MBTex so hard, when every other manufacturer had cloth readily available in North American markets? Aside from gray market cars, one almost never sees cloth/velour in US market Mbz cars.

I have a verbal agreement with the seller to buy these cars for $650 for the pair. The 89 is hit down the right side, needs a fender and both doors. The A-post is tweaked a little, a quick pull will deal with that neatly enough.

The 91 is smacked in the rear, left-of-center. It MIGHT pull out OK on the Car-O-Liner, but I get the sick feeling it will need a quarter, rear rail, rear body panel and floor.

I have to keep reminding myself that there's a limit beyond which a car is a parts car, and not worthwhile to fix. Sometimes these cars are like ugly orphan dogs, that I want to bring home and bring back to health, when euthanasia is sometimes more appropriate. And before I open a can of worms on euthanasia, please understand that I'm trying to make a point about cars, not create a debate.