--- title: Mercedes-Benz 190 SL · HICONIUM description: "Max Hoffman asked Stuttgart for a cheaper open car to sell beside the 300 SL, and the board approved both in one September 1953 sitting. The 190 SL wore the Gullwing's face over a Ponton saloon floor, cost half as much, and outsold its famous sibling eight to one — 25'881 cars that made the SL a bloodline rather than a one-off." canonical_url: https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/190-sl image: https://hiconium.com/og/vehicle/mercedesbenz/190-sl.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.com/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.com/) › [Vehicles](https://hiconium.com/vehicles) › [Mercedesbenz](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz) › Mercedes-Benz 190 SL > On this page: [The price and the proof](#the-price-and-the-proof) · [The car that made the SL a family](#the-car-that-made-the-sl-a-family) · [Technical specifications](#technical-specifications) · [Buying interest, silently.](#buying-interest-silently) · [Open a file on yours.](#open-a-file-on-yours) · [The people behind the car](#the-people-behind-the-car) ![A light-ivory Mercedes-Benz 190 SL roadster with red leather, top down, on a warm champagne-taupe field in late-afternoon light](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/cars/mercedesbenz-190-sl/hero-wide-2560.jpg.w1920.q90.webp) Market value · road $60K–$225K Typical $143K · 7 sales $51K $239K [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/190-sl#market) # 190 SL The SL for the boulevard Max Hoffman asked Stuttgart for a cheaper open car to sell beside the 300 SL, and the board approved both in one September 1953 sitting. The 190 SL wore the Gullwing's face over a Ponton saloon floor, cost half as much, and outsold its famous sibling eight to one — 25'881 cars that made the SL a bloodline rather than a one-off. [View details](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/190-sl#overview) ![A light-ivory Mercedes-Benz 190 SL roadster with red leather, top down, on a warm champagne-taupe field in late-afternoon light](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/cars/mercedesbenz-190-sl/hero-mobile-2160.jpg.w3840.q90.webp) Market value · road $60K–$225K Typical $143K · 7 sales $51K $239K [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/190-sl#market) Market value · road $60K–$225K Typical $143K · 7 sales $51K $239K ’24 ’26 Market history · in the terminal [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/190-sl#market) Power 105 PS DIN (M 121 1.9-litre four · 120 hp SAE gross) Built 25'881 (May 1955 to February 1963) 0–100 km/h 14.5 s (factory · Road & Track ran 0–60 in 13) Top speed 171 km/h (factory band 170–180) Kerb weight 1'140 kg (aluminium bonnet, doors and boot lid) Price then $3'998 (New York 1955 — half a 300 SL) Market & Price ## The price and the proof A terminal for one car: the model curve over the documented record, the benchmarks it is measured against, and the instruments that read it. Records: 7 documented road sales on file · 2024–2026; estimate band $60K–$225K · good road cars. recorded sale prices · mixed hammer and premium-inclusive basis. HCN:190SL Live model $116'190 -8.6% · 12M 1Y 5Y 10Y MAX +2Y S&P 500 Gold Crises log lin Model curve · anchored to 7 documented sales · benchmarks rebased at window start model v1 · seed mercedesbenz-190-sl · not investment advice The readouts · model figures against the benchmarks 7 documented anchors · last sale 2 mo ago Compound annual growth | Window | This car* | S&P 500 | Gold | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1Y | -8.6% | +18.8% | +21.9% | *Modeled price CAGR · S&P is a price index, no dividends Deepest drawdown · model window This car* -48.2% Feb 2025 → Jun 2025 · not recovered S&P 500 -11.1% Feb 2025 → Apr 2025 · recovered Jul 2025 Gold -18.9% Feb 2026 → Jul 2026 · not recovered Forecast ladder · model quantiles | Horizon | P10 | P50 | P90 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +6M | $95K | $115K | $140K | | +12M | $88K | $114K | $149K | | +24M | $77K | $113K | $164K | Median path with the 10th and 90th percentile · not investment advice Transaction ledger · documented sales Mixed price basis · not estimates All Road LM · Comp Newest first List Distribution Search venue or lot 8 of 8 recorded sales · shown in USD · recorded currency in each record - 2026 · 05 Bring a Trailer · Bring a Trailer · hammer Road $200K - 2025 · 10 RM Sotheby's · Munich · incl. buyer's premium Road $194K - 2025 · 08 RM Sotheby's · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $213K - 2025 · 08 Bring a Trailer · Bring a Trailer · hammer Road $72K - 2025 · 06 Bring a Trailer · Bring a Trailer · hammer Road $113K - 2025 · 05 Bring a Trailer · Bring a Trailer · hammer Road $216K - 2024 · 10 H&H · Duxford · incl. buyer's premium Road $215K - 2022 · 01 Barrett-Jackson · Scottsdale · incl. buyer's premium Not market-representative · Televised no-reserve peak; the same chassis brought $187,000 in 2025 Road $352K The 2022 Scottsdale record of $352'000 was a televised no-reserve peak, not a level — the same chassis brought $187'000 three years later. Originality carries the premium: matching numbers, factory colours, hardtop and documented restorations. Price range · road · open Confidence · high With more than a thousand logged public sales the 190 SL is one of the best-priced classics anywhere: drivers and older restorations trade at $60'000–$120'000, fresh correct two-top restorations at $180'000–$225'000. classic.com benchmarks the model around $110'000–$113'000 (mid-2026 snapshots), and Hagerty's guide has softened through 2026. Floor $60K Typical $143K Ceiling $225K Estimate band for good road cars. 7 documented sales since 2019 plotted below. $49K $60K $143K $225K $243K Hover the spectrum to read a value, or a dot for the sale behind it. Band and axis shown in USD. Sale positions use indicative fixed-rate conversion to USD; sale readouts retain recorded currencies. Figures in USD for road-going 190 SL roadsters and hardtop cars in driver-to-concours condition. Projects trade from about $13'000; concours restoration costs routinely exceed the value of the finished car. The wider market · Mercedes-Benz at auction · median per year · modeled between anchors 1,779 lots · 2003–2026 · exact yearly anchors · modeled line [Explore all 40,882 results](https://hiconium.com/market#terminal) Instrument calibration for this file is in progress — the terminal above reads the documented record directly. RM Sotheby's, Barrett-Jackson and H&H figures include buyer's premium; Bring a Trailer figures are winning bids. Guide figures are date-stamped snapshots (Hagerty February 2025 and August 2026; classic.com August 2026), not appraisals. Overview ## The car that made the SL a family In early September 1953 Max Hoffman stood before the Daimler-Benz board with a double request: a road-going version of the 300 SL racer, and a smaller, cheaper open two-seater for the American market. Mid-September the board approved both. Five months later the pair stood side by side at the International Motor Sports Show in New York — the Gullwing finished, the 190 SL a hurried prototype with a hood scoop the production car would lose. Under Karl Wilfert's body-development shop, Walter Häcker redesigned the car for production: power-dome bonnet, revised lamps and bumpers, the 300 SL's face scaled onto a shortened Ponton saloon floor with the 220 a's swing axle. Series production began at Sindelfingen in May 1955. The 1.9-litre twin-carburettor four made 105 PS — enough for 171 km/h, and honest against the factory's own description of an elegant GT rather than a sports car. A hardtop coupé joined that September; running changes replaced any facelift for eight years. Production ended in February 1963 at 25'881 cars, and a month later the 230 SL Pagoda replaced the 190 SL and the 300 SL alike. The smaller car had done the structural work: it took the SL badge from a homologation exotic to a series Mercedes, funded the bloodline, and put the three-pointed star in more driveways than any sports Mercedes before it. ### Hoffman's other SL The New York importer who talked Stuttgart into the road-going 300 SL asked for a smaller open car in the same breath — the board approved both in September 1953, and both debuted on his stand in February 1954. ### Eight to one At $3'998 in New York the 190 SL cost roughly half a 300 SL, and it outsold the icon about eight to one — 25'881 cars against some 3'200. ### A GT, and honest about it The factory archive calls the 190 SL 'not designed to be a true sports car, but an elegant and sporty two-seated GT car' — a Ponton saloon floor under Gullwing styling. ### Restoration costs more than the car Monocoque rust traps and the twin Solex carburettors make a concours 190 SL restoration a $150'000-to-$200'000 project — often more than the finished car brings. Built 25'881 — no roadster/coupé split published Bodies Roadster · Hardtop Coupé Chassis Shortened Ponton floor, swing axle Body design Karl Wilfert & Walter Häcker Successor 230 SL Pagoda, 1963 Reference ## Technical specifications ### Powertrain Engine M 121 SOHC four, 1'897 cc twin Solex 44 PHH compound carburettors; 105 PS DIN at 5'700 rpm — US literature quotes the same engine at 120 hp SAE gross Gearbox 4-speed manual, fully synchronised floor shift; 3.89 or 3.90 final drive Performance 0–100 km/h in 14.5 s factory figure; the factory's own words — 'not a true sports car, but an elegant and sporty two-seated GT' Running changes 8.5:1 → 8.8:1, Sept 1959 no single facelift, a decade of quiet revisions; the larger hardtop rear window from October 1959 is the visible marker ### Structure Floor unit Shortened W 120 Ponton monocoque steel unit body with front subframe from the 180 — not the 300 SL's spaceframe; aluminium bonnet, doors and boot lid Suspension Wishbones / single-joint swing axle the Eingelenkpendelachse from the 220 a, coil springs all round Brakes Drums, vacuum booster from May 1956 230-mm hydraulic drums — discs never came Dimensions 2'400 mm wheelbase, 1'140 kg kerb weight climbs to 1'160 kg from 1960, hardtop cars 1'180 — the scatter is factory bookkeeping, not mystery The records 0 Built factory total, 1955–63 0 USA-bound four of every ten cars 0 Right-hand drive about 2 per cent of production 0$ Auction record Scottsdale 2022 · with premium HICON BID ## Buying interest, silently. A HICON Bid is a confidential expression of buying interest on the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL file — never public, never shown to other members. It is not a binding purchase, and HICONIUM holds no funds. [Sign in](https://hiconium.com/sign-in) HICON Bids are a member instrument. Sign in to place one. The vault ## Open a file on yours. You keep one? The record starts in your garage — identity, papers, photography, and the market evidence this file already carries, bound to your chassis. [Sign in to open a file](https://hiconium.com/sign-in) [How membership works](https://hiconium.com/membership) The hands ## The people behind the car The people whose work shaped the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL. No free period portrait on record #### [Max Hoffman](https://hiconium.com/people/max-hoffman) US importer, commercial instigator Asked Stuttgart for both SLs in September 1953 and showed both on his New York stand five months later; the 190 SL was his volume play for America. No free period portrait on record #### Fritz Nallinger Chief engineer Framed the SL pair as successors to the old two-seater A-cabriolets — a new product family with the star in the grille. No free period portrait on record #### Karl Wilfert Head of body development Supervised the 190 SL body; the factory credits the design to Wilfert and Walter Häcker jointly. No free period portrait on record #### Walter Häcker Series body designer Redesigned the immature New York prototype into the production body — trapezoidal grille, power-dome, the finished 1955 car. Paul Bracq, often miscredited, joined Daimler only in 1957.