1954-1963 Mercedes-Benz 190SL

The 190SL’s designers had a challenge on their hands—to echo the 300SL’s styling, but not copy it

by Marit Anne Peterson

1958 Mercedes-Benz 190SL

Close your eyes and picture your local main drag on a Saturday afternoon. Parked outside the neighborhood coffee shop, what do you see? Likely one or two Mercedes SLs, 280s… 560s… 450s… 380s… They’re a breeze to own and drive, good-looking cars that have always been popular, comfortable, and tasteful. On the used market, they’re the everyman’s German roadsters, and they all have as their progenitor the 190SL. The 190SL’s own heritage is distinguished, a melding of the 180 sedan’s unibody genes and the supercar 300SL’s styling. Its impetus came from the showrooms of Max Hoffman, Mercedes-Benz’s New York importer in the 1950s. To Hoffman’s way of thinking, the enthusiasm generated by the 300SL’s 1952 victory in La Carrera Panamericana represented an opportunity to sell cars—lots of them—but the Gullwing’s sticker of $8,000 was more than twice what most folks were willing or able to pay. Hoffman wanted a cheaper roadster to satisfy the American taste for...