Merc 190 cosworth buying advise needed...............

[Rocket88]

Any of you gents ever had / owned / stolen one of these.........been offered a 2.5 manual at reasonable moolah, which appears to have been well looked after, have trawled the usual interweb sites, but could do with a non fanboi opinion.........

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Never owned one,but in a previous life I used to drive lots of different Mercs,that were lent to the company I worked at for evaluation.

Drove a manual 2.3 ( ridiculous dogleg 1st) that was quite fun, in a super safe ,more grip than power way and a 2.5 auto which didn't seem any faster than a Sportline 2.6. In fact I remember the 2.5 auto being left parked up over the Christmas break because non of the directors,the transport manager or me wanted to use it( I think I took a 4x4 Scorpio instead) . That sort of sums them up to me, a bit bland,pleasant enough but certainly not what you'd expect from the Cosworth,DTM, Senna hype that surrounds them.

[Barry Cade]

ohhhh. Love these. Never owned one but did a lot of research as I was looking for one for a while. 2.5 is more common and less "special" although still brilliant. Biggest issue seems to be with lack of looking after. I would only buy one with FULL specialist service history.

[Rocket88]

Copious service history, totally standard, apparently early ones [2.3] had timing chain issues, which 2.5 solved.............it's black as well so i can employ various coloured ladies to hang out of the window and expound the virtues of my ageing manhood.........or not

[Grundig]

Aren't Mercs a case of, manual boxes weak & autos indestructible ??   

[Pillock]

My advice would be to buy it immediately, and then lend it to me indefinitely.

[Rocket88]

manuals are pretty strong, these have dog leg first gear......not the slickest of shifts apparently........