Hi , I'm glad Graeme mentioned the 190 forum in the post above , it really is an excellent source of knowledge about these cars .
I'm currently on my third 190 , and I plan to hold onto this one for a while , so have embarked on a programme of improvements .
Unlike some others , I'm not afraid to buy cheap cars that need work , having ran older cars for a while and tending to know what my capabilities are .
My first 190 was bought purely and simply as a stopgap , after my W124 of 11 years ownership suffered failure of the differential and it was going to be uneconomic to repair . I had been aware of this 190 just a mile down the road from my home with some minor accident damage and a for sale sign in the windscreen . After a careful inspection and a test drive , it was mine for £300 . It needed a new headlamp and indicator lens , and I removed the dented front wing and beat it back into shape ( the car belonged to an elderly lady and I think she had driven into her gatepost ) ; that saw me on the road with it . I didn't know a lot about 190's back then but soon found that , being a B registered model it was a very early one and quite rare ; it was a real pleasure to drive and I kept it for two or three years . In that time , I replaced the two rusty front wings with rust free ones from another car ( trawled the scrapyards until I found one the same colour , so it was just unbolt the old wings and bolt on the new , best of all they were only £15 each ! I replaced tyres and brakes ( discs and pads , plus handbrake shoes at the back - if you haven't done much work on cars , the Haynes manual will keep you right - these are easy DIY jobs and the parts arent expensive ) . My car was sagging a bit at the back so new springs and shock absorbers fixed that , again not expensive or difficult to do . The only thing I can remember actually failing on that car was the water pump , about £70 for a new one from Mercedes and two or three hours work on a cold , dark winter night to remove the radiator for access , swap out the pump and build back up again . During my ownership it needed welding around one rear jacking point ( this is always the first area to rust on a 190 so look carefully under the sills and feel for rot ) chances are , if it is sound there , it will be everywhere else . Many will be rusty around the wheelarches , this is only cosmetic and light rust can be repaired by a competent body shop ; front wings unbolt , but if rear arches are rotten they need to be cut out and a repair section welded in . Look carefully at the bodywork as this can be the hardest/most expensive thing to sort out . I've also had MOT failure for worn steering ball joints , a common problem , but they are only something like £12.50 and I've always just let the garage replace them , likewise things like rusty brake pipes which I could do myself but find more convenient just to let the MOT garage fix since the bill isn't usually more than £50 for such things and not worth the bother to save that much .
After having that car a while , I got the chance of a 190E 2.6 The bigger engine certainly had more power but the main thing was smoothness , also this car had a sunroof which my previous one didn't . Again , I got the car cheap ( this one cost me £500 , the most expensive to buy of my three 190's ) the bodywork was very tidy but alas the elderly couple I bought it from had a large dog and the interior smelled like a kennel . On the test drive there was a slight misfire , but as the owner had bought a new C Class and not started the 190 for a few weeks , I know these things can happen when a car lies for a while . This bugged me increasingly on the way home from Middlesborough back to Scotland ( always be prepared to travel for the right car ) so I stopped at Halfords in Penrith and bought a set of spark plugs ; no 2 was badly sooted up , and all were generally black from running rich ( the old couple had lived in a small village and I think used the car mainly for short journeys ) but after the 150 odd mile journey home the plugs were a nice grey colour , as they should be . The biggest problem with that car was steam going up the left hand side of the windscreen , which meant a leaking heater matrix . The part wasn't all that expensive , but it meant removing the whole dashboard to change it - a full day's work - again following instructions in the Haynes manual , then all was well . I removed all the seats and carpets to hoover out the vast amounts of dog hair , treated the seats with upholstery cleaner and shampooed the carpets , after which the smell was gone - another days work . Later I found another 190 in a breakers with the same interior . As the side bolster of my driver's seat was worn into a hole , I bought the passenger seat from that car ( actually I bought both seats as they were orthopaedic ones with inflatable bladders inside ) , transferred the orthopaedic bits into my seats and used the undamaged covers from the passenger seat to rebuild my driver's seat - result ! The scrap car also had rear headrests which I got and retrofitted to mine . As usual , I did normal servicing and things like tyres , brakes and so on , as you woukd with any car . The 2.6 did need a rear exhaust section but that was only £70 odd for the genuine item from Mercedes .
After getting the 2.6 I wasn't allowed to keep the first 190 , much as I wanted to , I offered it to my daughter but she declined , so I ended up giving it to a friend who was hard up and needed a car , he kept it for several years without having to do any further work .
Usually , when I acquire any of my older cars , there is a period of expense sorting out faults , after which they tend to run reliably .
I kept the 2.6 for a couple of years , then my nearest and dearest announced she was expecting our son ! Becoming a dad again at the age of 50 , already having a grown up family , was something of a culture shock , it also became apparent that babies now need so much more paraphanlia carried around than those of 30+ years ago did , and the back doors of a 190 just weren't big enough to get an infant carrier easily in and out of ! Well , I'm just not the type to be seen dead in any kind of people carrier or suchlike , I did consider another S124 , but decided my solution was to be a W126 500SEL
I kept the S Class for five years , until underbody corrosion spelt the end ; it didn't owe me anything , then bought an S203 , which was a mistake and a money pit .
After sinking a couple of grand plus into repairs on the S203 , with new things going wrong as soon as one fault was fixed , I decided to go back to my roots and look for another older car - either a 190 or a W124 .
Prices were no longer as low as they used to be , with the better cars now priced in the thousands rather than the hundreds , I looked at some proper rubbish , then one night spotted a 190 advertised locally on Gumtree , with an asking price of only £250 and looking very tidy in the photographs . I also recognised it as one of the very rare LE models which meant it was one of the last 1000 or so sold in the UK . When I went to see it , the car was indeed very tidy , but the MOT had expired and there was a starting problem along with the ABS light permanently on , although once started it seemed to run well enough . I went away and did some reading , then decided to go back the following day and bought the car . On getting the car home , I replaced the OVP relay and ABS ECU with spare ones I had - result ! The car started easily , ran perfectly and ABS light came on then went out as it should - cost to me - zero plus five minutes of my time . I'm sure the car was for sale cheaply because the ABS light meant an MOT failure - I took it for an MOT and it passed with an advisory on rusty brake pipes . I ran it for six months without spending anything else on it , during which time it became apparent that oil was leaking into the coolant ( cylinder head gasket failure ) - on reading up on this and speaking to a number of people , including Stefano Mazzoni ( the 190 model register captain of the official owners club and one of the leading 190 experts in the UK ) I was advised that it would not just be the gasket and that problems with cylinder heads on the 1.8 engines are very common , also even if repaired there was a good chance it woukd happen again . Although still an M102 , I was advised that MB just seemed to have cut too many corners with the 1.8 and they just weren't as reliable as the 2 litre and 2.3 litre versions of these engines . Again , further research showed that dropping in the 2.3 litre version of the M102 was quite a popular modification so I started looking for one . I found one lying in a shed in a local breakers , devoid of ancillaries , but unknown history and no warranty for an asking price of £150 . After giving that one a miss , I kept watching out for one with some known history and eventually saw Dan Morgan's advert on here for the engine out of his 230CE which he was breaking - although it was a used engine with no warranty , I had Dan's assurance that he had ran it in his car without any problems and it was a good one . We agreed on a price of £200 so I hitched up my trailer and drove the 400 miles down to Cardiff to collect it - this trip put paid to the fifth diesel injector in my S203 ( when I was on the point of trading the car for another - so a final £500 repair bill from that car ) and had to drive most of the way home with windows open to avoid the fumes .
This brings us almost up to date , I now have the 2.3 engine installed in the 190 LE and running , I put a new set of tyres on it just a few weeks back and have the brake overhaul to do ( the 2.3 should have ventilated front discs as does the 2.6 ) so all discs/pads/shoes will be changed , along with new front callipers for the larger discs , flexible hoses and the four short pipe which got an advisory before , if the rear callipers need done at the same time , they will be .
At present , the 190 LE stands me something like £600 , including purchase , the new engine and tyres plus a few small items . By the time I've done the brakes it will owe me north of a grand or so , but then I'll have a good car since I've ran it long enough to know it's otherwise fine .
Later , it will need paint as there is rust under the chrome wheelarch trims and a few minor scabs here and there ; I'm watching for the proper Oris detachable towbar that would have been factory fitment , will probably fit a taller diff for more relaxed cruising now I have the bigger engine , and if I come across a mushroom leather interior that would finish it off .
I would advise caution if looking at a 190 with the 1.8 engine - do take the cap off the header tank ( caution if hot ! ) and check for emulsion in the coolant . The 2.0 is a much better bet , and a better drive : the 1.8'is , IMHO , underpowered , making overtakes risky ventures .
However , I can recommend a 190 as a safe and reliable first car , certainly better made and easier to look after that the models which followed it .
Alas not so many around and not as cheap as they used to be , but bargains are still out there . Good luck .
It also helps to put several older people on the policy as named drivers-[ NOT you understand as the main driver or a different place from where the car is kept unless its the same] as this will reduce premium slightly. Your problem is going to be that "well looked after" 190's are increasingly rare nowadays and those that do exist tend to have owners that want to hold on to them! As has been said be very selective with your money and budget a bit for " contingency " even on the best of cars--- tyres exhaust brake pads oil+filter change all stuff you might need to spend relatively quickly even on a well maintained car.This is also a excellent forum to join------ 
Buy the very best you can. Get clued up too, join here, plenty of young lads just like yourself with 190's from what I can tell. 
