Mercedes 190sl - Part 1

Life is full of accidents, some more painful than others. Every now and then you might get a good one, even a very good one; and here's one - Soul Machine's 1958 Mercedes 190sl.

The first time I saw a 190sl was on the cover of Smash Hits - it was my brother's copy in case you were wondering - back in 1985. Nick Hayward from Haircut 100 had paid £5000 for one. I can't remember the colour but I remember this weird sense of excitement and melancholy; confusion meets awe. It was slightly exhasuting - it played on my impressionable mind for quite a while, and the 190sl seed was planted.

I'd remortgaged the house to pay a debt. The conversation went something like: 'Based on the information we have, we would be happy to lend you a further £50,000 as a second mortgage." My debt was £25,000. I took it.

I'll talk quite a lot about cars joining my fictitious 'stable'. Back then the list was short - black 930 Turbo; Lotus Esprit Turbo, Countach; that was probably it. In fact they were the cars I so desperately wanted to have a go in just to experience what seemed to me to be insane levels of acceleration; I simply couldn't fathom it when compared to my 1972, 1200 Beetle that didn't achieve 60 very often, let alone in a sub-six second time. But the 190 was the first car I was happy to just look at. I completely got what Nick Hayward was on about -.he'd seen it and had to buy it. It joined the list.

The 190sl was introduced to the world in prototype form at the New York Auto Show in 1954. In May of the following year in was released to the public for the heady price of $4,295, or at today's rate of exchange £3,244, and about £81,000 bumped up against inflation. That's top-end stuff; this car was a posh piece of kit in its day.

I'd remortgaged the house to pay a debt. The conversation went something like: 'Based on the information we have, we would be happy to lend you a further £50,000 as a second mortgage." My debt was £25,000. I took it.

Autotrader And The Search

Back in early 2004 the capabilities of the Internet for purposes of searching out rare cars weren't what they are today; as such, I headed to Autotrader and began the search. It didn't take long to exhaust '80s 190s, but with a little further digging via the list.of Pagodas, I found three 190s lost in the small print: two left hookers and a right hand drive UK car, with 36,000 from new. It was also close to £10,000 less than the higher mileage alternatives, at £18,995.

Back in 2004, my only car was the old 911T we have in the collection, which had been the case since October 1999. So off I went, to take a look, feeling reasonably certain I hadn't a clue what I should be looking at. If you're buying a classic, turn up in a classic if you can, it helps. What we often neglect to consider is how difficult it can be for owners to part with their cars; finding a good home is often as important as getting the right price. It's no exaggeration to say that the vendor of the 190sl and I spent about an hour nosing around the 911 and talking about my best moments of ownership, before we finally pulled the cover off the Merc. But when we did, there it was. The same 'Smash Hits' feeling rushed in and for a moment my voice packed up; unintelligible drivel escaped the first couple of times I attempted to sound 'on it' and knowledgeable. We got there - I was able to ask for a drive, and once we were out and about my voice came back, and thanks to a very generous vendor, I was able to ask everything I'd planned and more. In fact, he volunteered so much, even to the point of suggesting things I should be asking. Knowing nothing about old Mercs, I had taken the time to call Silver Arrows; the message back was to pop the hardtop on and go again to see if there were any worrying noises. And so we did and it was incredibly quiet; like floating.

The next challenge for my inexperience, was to haggle

We'd had a good look at the paperwork, which included everything, including the original marketing brochure and log book, together with every MOT and service record. I gave it a go: "Um, it's going to need a new hood; how does £18,500 grab you?"

I'd always understood haggling to be a process where you try and win small moments in your favour. But this is not always the case. The response to mt to knock £445 off the asking price was met by a further reduction of another £500 by the vendor, to £18,000. The reason? He had decided that I was the person he wanted to look after his car. And I think that's the thing, we're custodians; these lovely moments of history pass into our care and we keep them safe.

And it's perhaps for this reason, this sense of care, that old girls like the Merc are often given names. Lola, in this case. Wasn't my doing either; a friend called it out one day as we were picking our way through West London with the roof down and some Burt Bacharach behind our ears. Lola; it felt right.

Is it Lola, or our Merc 190? I'll play it safe and run with the latter unless you suggest otherwise. And now, as I write, I have a Kinks song bouncing around my bonce; the different cars in the collection all have such distinct personalities; this one is a gentle but siriene old thing. Like driving a boat. She floats along peacefully; needs some advance warning before the steering steers, and stops in much the same nautical manner. Lola the boat. Part boat - Riva - part film star - Grace Kelly.

That's the 190. Loads more to share and a bunch of trips to do. Can't wait. Part of the reason for starting this blog was to find a reason, if ever one's needed, to get out in the cars much more. And that has to be a good thing.