More brown Mercedes 190 action. Now with even more pics!

[bigstraight6]

Lovely looking 190, never seen one in that colour. I bought a red 1988 two litre manual example some years ago for £500 and it was superb, utterly reliable and nice to drive, and so well made.

[mercrocker]

190EZRDABOLOX....Even though mine is being a knob at the moment its still a GR9 car and I do not know what to replace it with if it carries on being a knob.   Is the most povo Merc I have owned but despite, or because of, this it has also been the best.   Guess I will have to find another one eventually- it needs to be badermatic tho.  And not grey inside...I hate grey.

[ProgRocker]

 Possibly the rarest colour available on the 190, which gives an unashamedly 80s flavoured car a bit of a 70s spin. A bit like Propaganda performing on Top of the pops while riding Raleigh Choppers, or... not.

 

 

Good luck with the sale Andy.

[AndyW201]

I never thought these cars would ever be addictive, but I always end up buying some other make of shite, then coming back to 190s. They're just good at what they do. For a 20 odd year old car, reliability is brill, they're fairly simple to fix, and parts are still reasonably cheap if you know where to go. Most of them are starting to display some 'interesting' rust traps now the majority are knocking on for over 20 years old, but I just think back to the days when I used to see 8 year old Fords needing welding work... I'd like to think I'd carry on coming back to 190s, but there are too many bellends now, scene taxing them since Mercedes Enthusiast magazine started featuring them. Which is why eBay is starting to get full of cloth seated, steel wheeled four-pot 190s with £3k+ price tags sadly...

 

Cav, were you on the 190 forum under the name custardchucker? I think I remember your car. The wheels came from a guy called Steve from Sheffield (or maybe Doncaster)with a grey 190? I nearly bought that car from him when he bought a 190 Cosworth

[AndyW201]

Quick update time!

 

We had the propshaft off last week, and found the rubber carrier for the centre bearing had destroyed itself. So a complete centre bearing assembly has been fitted and all is fine, no more squealing or vibration.

 

Went for MOT today, and it sailed through. MOT man let me have a good look around and it's rock solid underneath. All jacking points and grommet holes are sound, exhaust still looks nearly new, brake and fuel pipes have all been previously replaced with copper items, and have had a fresh coat of copaslip. Emissions barely registered, and brakes are strong, no binding, pulling etc. So it is now MOT'd until February next year.

 

Anyone fancy it?

[AndyW201]

Well, time for another update eh?

 

After a few weeks or so, I finally found a new home for the old brown 'Un. It actually nearly found a home on this here forum, as Mr Shitpeez esq expressed an interest. Sadly while I was pissing about deciding if I still wanted to sell or not, Bazza ended up with a gloriously mental Mazda instead.

It was a bit worrying as the next interested party came from my ad on the blue forum, and with the car being rear drive and manual... But it turned out the lad was a top sort, turned up as promised with the exact amount of cash I wanted for the car and and the car has so far avoided being painted matt black, having it's diff welded and four different colour dayglo wheels fitted!

 

So, a farewell pic later, and she was off to Leeds.

 

 

See ya ol'mucker!

 

 

Since then, she's been all over the country with her new owner, knocking up something like 7000 miles in 6 months...

 

So, what the frig was I going to drive now then? Once again, the (somewhat predictable) answer would pop up on the Mercedes 190 owners forum...

[AndyW201]

After a good few weeks that I will never get back, looking at various cars advertised as minters ('one vowel out' as Ken Bruce probably wouldn't say), I was getting a bit demoralised. I'd looked at the likes of Mercedes C Classes, BMW 3 series, early Audi A4s, A3s, even TDi Pisshats. Most were either high mileage, badly lashed up former write offs, no shows when viewings were arranged, and of course with the C Classes, just too rusty to be arsed with.

 

I had consciously wanted to give 190 a swerve for a while and run something different.

Until I was idly browsing the bay one night, and up popped a 190 I recognised from the forum.

 

The owner at that time had just joined up, even though he was a serial Mazda MX5 owner with examples of Mark 1,2 and 3 MX5s in various stages of tune. While at a Copart yard looking for an MX to break for spares, he came across a nice 190 in there. It had suffered a slight 'tap' to the rear quarter.

 

 

And, close up. Amazingly, a car that had been valued at 3 large had been written off for this, albeit just as a cat D...

 

 

Anyway, Rob got the 190 home, had the car into a body shop for a rear quarter repair, lobbed an MOT on it and pressed it into use again... then put it up for sale. Too many cars, not enough driveway space etc.

We've all been there...

 

So, a cheeky bid was bunged in, and despite a bit of frenzied bidding, I won. A train ticket to sunny Scunthorpe was purchased, and a nervous two day wait for pick up lay ahead.

So, I had sold a brown 190 that had narrowly avoided being written off, and had just agreed to buy blind off eBay another brown 190 that HAD been written off.

 

WCPGW?

[Jim Bell]

Top purchase!

I hope the graph doesn't continue on in the same vein though. Or eventually, you'll end up buying a brown 190 that's been written off, exported, cubed, and fed to a lion.

 

Brown mercedes cars are absolutely for winners.

[AndyW201]

They sure are Mr Shitpeez! Cheers m8.

 

So, a quick uneventful train journey ensued and I found myself at Scunthorpe station where Rob, the seller, would pick me up in the 190.

 

The car appeared all as it should be when it arrived. The rear quarter area appeared straight and true, good quality paint and match, and good panel gaps. The rest of the car all checked out as well, and the short drive to the vendor's house showed that it drove spot on as well.

 

After removing the plastic boot liners and checking all was well (lots of signs of panel beating on the inside of the panel, rather than it just being trowelled full of wag).

So both parties happy, beer vouchers were exchanged and another uneventful journey back home was had. No petrol station shot sadly as it was bloody busy, so just a 'near to the petrol station' shot instead.

 

 

So, to the car. What's so special about this one to have me going for yet another 190 then?

This car is pretty much the holy grail of 190s, to a sad, nerdy fan boy like me anyway.

The colour is the lovely Bornite metallic. Not quite as brown as my last one, but it does have a nice tinge of purple thrown in.

It also has the desirable 2.6 six pot motor. With 160 bhp, it goes well! Coupled with the bulletproof four speed autobox for either waftiness, or in S mode and a dab of kickdown, modern VAG TDI baiting!

It also has the factory sportline chassis pack. A nice subtle lowering job (22mm), with uprated shocks and springs, thicker anti roll bars, harder bushes, a lower ratio steering box, and wider lower profile wheels and tyres (which are the same design as the standard offerings, for added stealth). So tighter handling, but still with some degree of ride comfort.

It has the 'comfort leather' interior in cream, which contrasts nicely with the brown. It's all in nice order as well with original velour over mats, original dealer fit Blaupunkt CD, rare outside temp gauge, rear headrests and front armrests and leccy windows all round.

 

All of this making it a £32 grand car back in '93!

 

So, some more pics then? All right then. So, this is how the rear quarter looks now,

 

 

Some shots of the lovely leather,

 

 

Excuse the pics, they don't really do the colour justice, and notice the headlight wash wipes of massive win. Working perfectly too!

 

 

All standard and unmolested, with original plates, tax disc holder and rear screen sticker. A first for any of my cars.

 

 

Problems so far have been few. A new window regulator has been fitted, and the front strut top mounts are about borked, so a pair of them are on their way. Luckily they're about 10 minutes a side on these. And there's bugger all history with it. Looks like it was binned when it was written off. But it's been looked after, it's plain to see. And up until the accident it was owned for 12 years in what looks like an affluent part of London.

[rml2345]

That looks flipping gorgeous! There's something about a brown Mercedes that makes it seem so classy.

[trigger]

That's stunning, I'd love a ride in a 2.6 to see how it compares to my 2.0, much better I suspect!

[AndyW201]

Cheers guys!

 

Trig, I'd recommend a 2.6 to anyone. I loved the two 2.0 190s I had, nothing wrong with them in my book. And yours is a lovely example (did you get the sills sorted on yours?)

 

But a 2.6 is a different beast. Loads of usable power, turbine smooth delivery, a nice burbly soundtrack, and it can surprise many a modern VAG machine when asked to.

 

Best bit is you can pick one up for not much more than a four cylinder model, and most 2.6s were specced up better. There's not even much in it,economy wise in my experience.

[Skizzer]

That looks a complete honey, top purchase.  Headlamp wipers are pure sex.

[trigger]

(did you get the sills sorted on yours?).

Not yet, my water pump has started grumbling now so that's going to be my next job.

[brickwall]

Top buy. Nice colour too - subtle, odd and strange, but not sickly.

[Jim Bell]

I'm quite keen to experience the 2.6 now.

My 2.3 is rapid enough on kickdown. Be interesting to see the difference.

 

I suggest a "brown Merc" Top Gear challenge style competition between you, me and Trig. Drag race, mpg test, and amount of B Pillars should all be catagories.

[Ghosty]

Looks like a keeper, I'd love something like that. Even if the old man's Smoke Silver 1.8 with chocolate interior never ran right, it was a lovely car.