Yup. Serial car buyer....no, make it serial Mercedes car buyer Adlis K has since sold off that beautiful 190e 2.3-16 lookalike of his as of a month or so ago. The reason of the sale after a helluva paint job, the refurbishment of those gorgeous 190e Evolution wheels, a change of a whole lot of mechanical parts like the propshaft bearings, mountings and other stuff is the funding of another car. It usually is......with this friend of mine. Much like the sale of his previous W124 200e that looked like a 500e.



The 2.3 8 valve was a nice little car to drive if you guys noted from the earlier posting of it. What I loved about it was the smaller, nimbler size it had over the larger Mercedes sedans but it kept all of the same quality you found in the larger Mercedes. Much like the current crop of baby Benzes, the A class and CLA class cars. But the difference was that the w201 190e had a ride that is comfortable and soaked up road imperfections that the newer cars would allow you to feel through your buttocks. Handling was still good if not great. If it wasn't, Mercedes would not have won races with it (especially the DTM). The 2.3 8 valve engine isn't as great as the one with the 16 valve head that Cosworth helped build but it still had that all important torque. No under 8 seconds 0-100kmh dash, but under 10 was achievable. Decently fast for something that was born in 1987.

Now, we talked about the sale and Adlis K noted that if this were a 16 valver, it may not have happened. The real deal would most probably be kept for a while longer than a year or so. Original Cossies go for RM45,000 in good nick. Bad ones come in at around Rm30,000 and get sold almost immediately. Once I remember browsing an advert for one on sale at RM29k and by the next day it was sold. Amazing demand for these specialty mercs here in the Klang Valley.

I'll leave you some pics of the car before, during and after Adlis K's efforts. I shall......miss it. But, I have to tell you guys that the next car he's buying is a thing of beauty. It's still another classic Mercedes by the way.
Quality lasts long after the original (truly expensive) price is forgotten. Stay tuned folks.

The Mercedes evo 2 wheels have been refurbished and in line with keeping things very '2.3-16' the front AMG look bumper gets replaced with a fiberglass copy of the 2.3-16 bumper. And then the paintjob - Mercedes smoke silver, which looks like gold, one of two original colours for the 2.3-16. Yes, the car looks gorgeous, and drives well too.



The interior is all that's left to work on but the question is can Adlis K keep the car long enough? In fact he's just let go of the W124 200e that looked fab with those 500e arches for a newer W204 c-class with the AMG Sport kit.

More to come later. A comparo between the pre-facelift w204 C180 kompressor AMG sport blueefficiency and our own C180 CGI blueefficiency may be featured soon! Pictures below -

Mercedes Benz took the end of the 1960s up till 1982 to finally come up with a Baby Benz, the Mercedes Benz 190E (W201 series). Being a very traditional brand who only built high end cars, it took its sweet time in coming up with an 'entry level' car. And that wasn't what really happened too. 

Since Mercedes Benz never built a small car in a long, long while, the 190E was over-engineered and was still priced at a premium compared to a similar sized Ford Escort or even a slightly larger Mazda 626 of its day. It had the same 'thunk' when you closed the doors. It brought along the first production multi-link suspension in a road going car as well as many features that you now see in cars today. It was so good that it stayed in production till 1993 with over 1.8million units built.



Take a look at the photos below of drawings and of prototypes to see how Mercedes Benz started out, especially the middle part where they cut a W114/115 and made it shorter and narrower. Quite unique.







I think it was wise for Mercedes Benz to actually wait till the 1980s before the 'Baby Benz' came out. Don't you guys agree too?


Photo Source:Mercedes Benz