Back in the day, the 190SL was viewed as the baby brother of the mighty 300SL “Gullwing.” And for years, these little 1.9-liter sports cars were undervalued. No more. Now they’re in the $150,000 to $200,000 range when fully restored.
This 1958 190SL was for sale on eBay at a Buy-It-Now price of $94,500. The collector car, furnished with a plush interior and roll-up windows, is not concours material. But it's very usable in the modern era.
Jim Lyons, its seller, describes the 190SL like this:
It’s an older restoration, in California all its life. The [previous] seller had it since the 1980s and bought it from the original owner. We did a full tune-up to it and installed a water pump.
The 190SL looks lovely in Light Ivory paint with a tan leather interior. The 1.9-liter inline-four, with 104 horsepower and 105 pound-feet of torque, sports dual Weber side-draft carburetors (replacing the original Solexes). All of the 190SLs were four-speed manuals. The odometer shows 30,000 miles, but the total mileage is unknown.
The car still has its original Becker AM/FM/Shortwave radio, minus its trim surround. Other vintage features include:
- Body-color 13-inch wheels with matching hubcaps
- Polished rear stone guards
- An analog clock and lockable glovebox
The brown convertible top is recent, but there is no matching hardtop.
A Stylish Tourer, Climbing in Value
The 190SL was produced between 1955 and 1963. However, Americans first saw it as a prototype at the 1954 New York Auto Show.
The mechanicals were similar to the 190 sedan. It used a shortened version of the 180 car’s unitary floor pan instead of the 300SL’s tubular spaceframe.
Fans of the 190SL might enjoy this bit of trivia: A couple of prototypes were fitted with the fuel-injected 2.2-liter engine from the 220SE sedan and coupe, creating the W127/220SL.
The 190SL was about $4,000 new, and if you wanted the hardtop (which got a larger rear window in 1959), it was $4,295. That was a lot of money in the 1950s. The car was replaced by the classic “Pagoda” 230SL in 1963—with slightly more powerful 250 and 280 variants. From there, the SLs got bigger, more complex, and more expensive.
The 1958 Mercedes-Benz 190SL may seem exotic, but Mercedes built nearly 26,000 of them.
The 190SL is not hugely powerful, but it’s an excellent tourer and quite dependable. And it’s handsome in an understated way. Vendor Lyons says, “This car will be a great investment, and it will continue to appreciate.”
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