What happened to the modern, small 190 SL?
07/04/2018
It was back in 1990 when Auto Motor und Sport reported enthusiastically about a soon-to-be-released new model, the Mercedes-Benz 190 SLK. The car even made the front page.
The good-looking, rounded convertible, basically a downsized R129, was expected in 1992 and was supposed to be able to keep up with its big brother in terms of performance.
And even then there was talk of a fully retractable aluminum hardtop. However, the folding mechanism had not yet been finally defined, wrote AMS in 1990.
Mercedes-Benz convertible fans still had to wait until 1996, however, when the R170, better known as the Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 and 230, arrived. The SLK was no longer quite as rounded as envisaged in 1990, but it could still be regarded as the indirect successor to the 190 SL of the 1950s.
It had a retractable hardtop as announced in 1990 and, as predicted in 1990, it was later also available with powerful engines and really sporty performance, although not until 2000.
