I bought a 91 2.3 with auto which is usually NOT recommended. I paid alot for mine ($10k) because it was a 1 owner with 61k miles and this was back in 99 when I joined this site. ;) It was 2 tone silver and grey but had the pretty bad blue interior. I mainly bought it for the low miles and good service records.

I will say after I had the transmission tweaked a lil to get the right shift points it would get about great and had decent power:P Oh and the next summer I had the lovely and wonderful evap core replaced so I could get some cold a/c...:mad: It was an awesome freeway cruiser. It would just hunker down, lock in and roll dead straight. I always yearned for a 2.6 tho:P

I do realize that my families health is important-that's why I commented on the fact that even with it's shortcomings, My 190 protected my wife in a severe accident.

My grandfather fell asleep in his 450 , rolled it twice and had nearly a scratch. A true testement to MB quality

I recently picked up an '89 2.6 5 speed. Its got a lot of highway miles on it, no records.

The door panels are peeling at the window edge, the AC/Heat is confused, and the radio keeps telling the antenna to go up.

Needs brake work which I'll diy with my son, who will learn to drive in it
I'm figuring for the purchase price plus brake parts it should do ok for around town and should my son get into an accident with it, he stands a better chance than in the other cars we own.

I love my 190E. I just picked up blower motor at a junkyard for $16 bucks that I'm getting ready to replace. Hope it works lol.