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I'm about to take on an old Mercedes restoration project, an '88 190E 2.3, with 219,000 km on it, and boy is that thing made to last. All I had to do to get it running again after two years of dormancy while exposed to the elements (without any long-term storage preparation, I might add) was unstick the brakes, clean the battery posts and add fresh fuel and she ran almost immediately when I jump-started her. Unfortunately, she's not going anywhere just yet, due to a gas leak (hope it isn't the tank, because I'd have to drop out the differential and driveshaft to replace or repair it). Those cars are little tanks, and I still see plenty of 190s on the road here today.
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Is it a 16v version or the normal 2.3?
I did the same with an E30 M3 some time ago, boy it was a nice project. In the end I had to seel the car with pain in my heart because I used it so little that I had to divert time from other things to get the car out for a spin and prevent it from rusting and wearing out in the garage
The 190 2.3 16v was made for competition, like my E30 M3, (Both went head-on-head in the DTM in the 80s) and as such the road version's detuned engine has even more durability because of strengthened components. A friend of mine had one with 325.000 km on the clock and it still felt powerful with a good psuh in the back when accelerating
I agree that quality was better some years ago, MB did cars like tanks for duration, until they learned that selling a new model each few years was more profitable. IMO of course they are still better quality than most other cars except certain models of other makes, but in average, the best quality cars around are MB.
That's however not to be mixed or messed up with safety! Safety comes from design and certain gadgets, quality not just from design but also from the materials chosen and the build process.
Proof of old MBs durability is the amount of them you see in the hands of north-African inmigrants proceeding each summer thousands of kilometers down and up the mediterranean coast with little maintenance. Never seen any BMWs or other cars as old as those MBs and still running under such abuse
