Mercedes-Benz Celebrates 30th Anniversary of the 190E Compact Saloon [64 Photos]

For car fans old enough to remember, November 1982, was the month Mercedes-Benz first entered the compact segment with the W201, i.e. the 190 and 190E models. Up to that point, the base model of the three-pointed star was the mid-size 200 E.

Today, it may occupy more niches than even its bean counters can remember, and more are on their way, but 30 years ago, the 190/190 E compact saloon was only the third family car, alongside the 200E and the S-Class, in Merc's range.

The “baby Benz”, as it was known, was designed by the great Bruno Sacco, featured a multilink rear suspension and was initially available with a 2-liter petrol engine delivering 88 and 120HP in the 190 and 190 E respectively.

In 1993, the 71HP 190D four-cylinder diesel and the sporty 190 E 2.3-16, which was powered by a new 16-valve four-cylinder with 182HP, were added to the model’s range.

In the following years, the line-up of Merc’s compact saloon would grow further, reaching its peak in 1988 with the 190 E 2.5-16 – a compact sports sedan that started out with 192HP and, at the end of its development, produced up to 232HP in the Evolution models.

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German Duel Between BMW M3 Sport EVO and Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 16v

Back in the 1980s when Mercedes-Benz was the undisputed king of the hill in the premium segments, the brand with the star broke all the rules with the compact size 190E and even more so with the sports version of the series, the 190E 2.3 16v powered by a 2.3-liter four-pot developed by famed engineering firm Cosworth.

The answer from the then upcoming BMW brand came four years after the debut of the 190E 2.3 16v with the first generation of the M3 based on the E30 3-Series in 1986.

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Weird Tuning: Mercedes-Benz 90E Fastback Crossover from Russia

The Mercedes-Benz 190E is a great car, especially in Cosworth form. But not all people value the classic Merc as much as we do. Take for example this Russian owner who decided to make a one of a kind special out of the Mercedes sedan and call it the E90 crossover.

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Classic Flashback: Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 and 2.5 16v Cosworth [with Video]

This is the tale of the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3 16 and 2.5 16 sport sedans. Developed in collaboration with Cosworth initially for the rally scene of the 1980s, the flagship version of the 190E series eventually went on to dominate track-racing and ended up on the roads as well, putting up a good fight against BMW's iconic M3. Even though nine times out of ten, people would choose the Bimmer over the Merc, the 190E Cosworth's underdog status makes it an equally appealing car. As Richard Hammond put it: "it was Cinderella, but the coach never came".

But let's take it from the start. In the late '70s, the V8-powered 450SLC rally car started to show the signs of aging, so the Stuttgart automaker decided to replace it with a compact model. Jointly developed with Cosworth, the 190E never made to rallying though, as Audi took everyone by surprise with the Quattro, featuring four-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine. Mercedes' management didn't want to fight an battle it couldn't win so instead, they competed in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).

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Barnyard Collection of Two New BMW M3 E30s, a Mercedes 190E EVO II and a Ford RS200 Group B!

It appears that everyone and their uncle are agreeing that this barn find, found in Swansea, England, is one of the best finds ever. While I'm more of a Boss '9 in Kentucky kind of guy, I'll agree that these low mileage rides are indeed quite cool.

In order of built-for-homologation badness, there's 1) a white 350+ horsepower AWD Ford RS200 road-going Group B rally car with 1,042 miles, 2) two first-gen E30 M3s - which, normally, would put out 195 horsepower - in red with 37 and 57 miles on them, and 3) a blue 232 horsepower Mercedes 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II.

Both red racers and the Benz were built so BMW and Mercedes could compete in Group A Touring, while the RS200 was made street-able so Ford could put people into the rally ring during the hairy-chested Group B years.

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Back to Future Benz: Mercedes Retrofits 190 with Modern 204HP Diesel, Faster than the 190E 2.5-16 EVO II!

We often hear people whining and groaning about modern cars, either because they don't make them the way they used to or because automakers aren't making any technological advances. We say, you can't win them all, especially those that don't have a clue about what they're talking about. Nevertheless, we'd advise them to take a look at this uber-cool 'Back to the future' style Mercedes project that demonstrates the major developments in diesel technology over the past two decades.

In order to do this, the German automaker's engineers retrofitted a 1980's 190 sedan with an ultra modern common-rail diesel from the C250 CDI BlueEfficiency.

The 2.2-liter 4-cylinder clean diesel produces an output of 204 horsepower and a massive 500Nm or 368 lb-ft of torque between 1,600 and 1,800 rpm, which is more than twice the torque of the most powerful model in the old W 201-series, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II that was presented in 1990 and produced in a limited run of 502 units as a homologation special for the Group A DTM touring cars.

With the new diesel engine, the classic 190 accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in a mere 6.2 seconds. Now pay attention; not only does the 190 D BlueEfficiency manage to perform the standard sprint 11.9 seconds faster than a 190 D of the time (18.1 sec...), but more impressively, it literally trumps the 235HP 190 E 2.5-16 EVO II that accelerated from standstill to 100 km/h in 7.1 seconds!

For the record, the standard, BMW M3 E30 challenging 190 E 2.3 16V upon which the EVO II was based, completed the same acceleration in 7.5 seconds.

Despite the scorching sprint time and the fact that the 190 D BlueEfficiency has 72 more horsepower than the standard 190 D, the new engine in the old body consumes 4.9 lt per 100 km (NEDC) instead of the 7.3 liter figure for 1988 (51.1 mpg vs 32.2 mpg respectively).

In comparison, the larger (160mm or almost 6.3-in. longer than the 190) and heavier (+385 kg or +848 lbs) but also far better equipped C250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY that gets all sorts of safety and luxury features such as seven airbags and ESP, hits the 100km/h mark in 7.0 sec and consumes on average 5.1lt/100 or 46.1 mpg US.

Mercedes-Benz 190 D BlueEfficiency

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Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16V EVO II

Blast from the Past: BMW E30 M3 EVO vs Mercedes 190E 2.5 16v

We discovered this scanned article from the 1988 September issue of Car Magazine comparing the BMW M3 2.5 Evolution I with the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5 16v over at our friends at VW Vortex. The eloquently written comparison test by George Kacher is not only eye-catching but it also brought back many pre-internet era memories when as kids, we just couldn’t wait to get our hands on the latest car magazines and feed our four-wheeled obsession.

Check out the scanned article (click the pics to enlarge) after the jump along with a set of high-res pictures of the BMW M3 E30s and the Mercedes 190E 2.3/2.5/EVO that we managed to dig out of our archive. -Continued

Scans Via: VW Vortex