Planning to Buy a 190E - Anything I should be concerned about?
 

I have been really interested in buying myself a used 190E, not sure wish which engine, insurance will probably factor in there. But I am concerned about getting myself into a problematic car. I really know nothing about them, but I really like the look of them.
A freind of mine has a 1990 Mercedes 300E and it is so nice, smooth drive, ultra quiet in mint condition even though it has 192,000km on it. Would love to buy his or one just like it but my insurance would be $1000 a year more. Anyways, I am only concerned about the 190E. Please relay any recurring or known issues about it so I can make my decision.

thanx for the input.

can't over emphasized the very well working Search feature on this board . . . especially since we went over this last week. :)

Dear RonS0da:

According to some posts about 190E, it seems that the engine in a 190E 2.3 is pretty bad. Gilly said that he ran across many junk 2.3 engines even before 100 Kmiles. He also said that 190E 2.6 is much better.

Best regards,

Eric

If you are worried about money, insurance shouldn't be your concern.

Maintenance and repairs on a poorly maintained car will eat you alive and look like chump change.

I mean I plan to take the car out for a serious drive, at least 10-20k to see if i can notice any noises that sound suspect, see if the car vibrates at highway speeds. Also plan to to take it to a local MB dealer to have is inspectec for $90cnd, that will give me a chance to take a look underneath to see if the chassis is rusting badly underneath. I would like a manual transmission but i know they are rare, probably mostly available on the 2.3 than the 2.6. I think the 2.6 is what i'm looking to get. Also which year or years should I be looking at. Hmmmm come to think of it, is there any 190E information sites, like car history maybe the problem or recall information on each year, etc.

STOP! If money is tight, buying a 15 year old Benz is the worst thing you can do. You have no hope of maintaining that car on a tight budget. ANY 15 year old car is going to cost bucks to keep going, and a 190E is no exception.

Take the same money and buy a much newer Corolla with a manny-tranny and roll-up windows. That's the cheapest way to drive.

I agree.

Get a middle to late nineties Mazda Protege, Toyota Corolla, or Honda Civic.

They will be inexpensive to buy and maintain, as well being fuel efficient.

It's just that a 15 year old Benz, like any 15 year old car, will be expensive to maintain. All of the seals, gaskets, hoses, belts, etc. are at the end or near the end of their useful life and need to be changed.

Money isn't a worry, as long as im not going to be putting like $10000 into a year to maintaine the car. Just so happens I live where the MB dealer/service centre has been outstanding to my friend who brings his Benz to ever since he bought his 300E 3 years ago and actual have suprised him with labour costs. Never late with his car, he gets it back when they say it will be ready. he took his car to them when he was planning to buy it, told him he found a gem, he's put like 70,000km on it since and the worst thing that he had to take it in for was a leaky seal in his tranny, which he couldn't repair himself. now maybe its because the 300E is a far better engineered car than the 190E.