1952 Mercedes Benz 220A Touring Sedan

1952 Mercedes Benz 220 A Touring Sedan

Thank you for visiting another one of AUTOCHOICE Is Yours, LLC'sexclusive listing. It is a rare occasion andprivilegefor AUTOCHOICE to represent a Classic Mercedes of thiscaliber with this type of history. The owner of this car, a retired Mercedes Dealer has kindly brought to you and I the story line of this fine classic. It has been included here for your pleasure and enjoyment. Also as a potential buyer it is our desire to make sure you have accurate history about this car to it's legacy can be brought tomany for generations to come. Avery large number of photos have been taken, in fact over 150, soyou can get a good idea of it's condition. Some may feel the photos are a bitredundant, however, the majority of our prospects/buyers like the fact there are many so they are able to look from all angles to make sure they see it all. For those potential serious buyers, please connect with Don to request A Drop Box of all 150 plus photos so you can blowup the photos for even bettercoverage of the photo. Lookforward to your request soon!Please call Don at (509) 301-1498 if you should have any questions. Our dealership is located in College Place, WA, 99324, HOWEVER, it is important for you to knowthecar is located in Grants Pass ORwhere it has beendomiciled since its arrival over 50 years ago and always enclosed andcovered.Forty-nine years ago, I discovered this Mercedes while in Germany. I am a retired Mercedes Benz dealer. My dealership, Auto Martin, was the creation of my father, Robert C. Martin, and his brother Berwick. Moving to Grants Pass, OR from Los Angeles in 1932, the brothers started a transportation business in Grants Pass. By 1936, they had expanded to open a Studebaker dealership, where I helped and worked as a young man, starting in 1945. When Studebaker acquired the rights to distribute Mercedes Benz in the 1950’s, my father, Robert, became the third Studebaker dealer in North America to be granted a Mercedes franchise. As a salesman in the dealership since 1962, and partner since ‘65, I have been a Mercedes aficionado from their earliest days in the United States.

Attending a Mercedes meeting in Stuttgart in the fall of 1966, my wife Robin and I purchased a vehicle for ourselves from the factory. On a ride in our new car down the Autobahn, we spotted this absolutely striking, classic black 6-cylinder, 4-door, luxury touring sedan with coach doors, at a local dealership. We took a closer look, keenly aware that building a collection of the world’s pioneer automobiles is a challenge, demanding quick action when opportunity presents itself. We purchased the car immediately and shortly thereafter drove the car to Mercedes headquarters in Sindelfingen, where they arranged for the car to be shipped to us in Grants Pass, OR. We were not able to meet the original owners. If we had, we may have been able to learn what lead up to changing the original column shift to a 4-speed on the floor, and a modern radio. We had our own modification of the newer radio, to play German language tapes to increase our fluency, as we traveled back and forth to Germany. Mercedes Headquarters offered to reupholster the leather before shipping, but we preferred to preserve the original leather.

Excited about the new addition to our collection, we quickly added it to our Mercedes Benz owners club membership, where the car qualified for the high kilometer badge that is mounted on the radiator grill. Since the car has been in our collection, it has remained indoors, and attended several Concours d'Elegance and rallies over the years, in Cottage Grove, OR, Yosemite and Apple Valley CA, since then. Since I purchased it 50 years ago, we have added just under 6700 miles to the car, which has otherwise been carefully covered and stored indoors, for its care and protection. Our preservation efforts have included acquiring an original hubcap and original parts to repair the front brakes, from Mercedes Benz Classic Centers in Stuttgart and California. We have also researched replacing the modern radio with an original radio. A 1995 appraisal of the car affirmed that it is a well-cared for automobile for its age. It has no major blemishes or apparent mechanical defects. The chrome is bright, and the overall appearance of the vehicle shows proper care. The upholstery, tires, glass and wood finish dash are in excellent shape. For further study ofthe 1950 Mercedes 220ATouring Sedan:

The styling was similar to that of the Mercedes-Benz 170S except that the 170's freestanding headlights were for the 220 integrated into the fenders for a slightly more modern look. Two different cabriolet models were built, conceived as exclusive sporting cars of exclusive character, but these only sold 1,278 and 997 for the "A" (2-door, 2/3-seat) and "B" (2-door, 4-seat) versions, respectively.[2]

In December 1953, just as the saloon and cabriolet "B" models were about to be replaced, a "Cabriolet A" derived W187 Coupé was announced for 1954. The Mercedes-Benz sales department let it be known that this development was a direct response to pressing requests from leading celebrities of the time. During 1953 the manufacturer replaced the conventionally flat windscreen on the 2/3 seater "Cabriolet A" with a slightly curved screen, which also found its way on to the new coupé: this was a way of highlighting the sporting nature of both models. Nevertheless, the coupé once fitted, as many were, with a steel sunroof, was at the end of 1953 offered for 22,000 Marks which was nearly twice the price for the standard W187 "Limousine", and only 85 of the W187 coupés were actually sold.[2]

Between August 1952 and May 1953 41 special soft top "OTP" [3] bodied W187 220s were produced for the police.

All 220s used newly developed M180 six cylinder 2195cc engine producing 80hp DIN (86 SAE) (59kW). In contrast with the rather old fashioned look of the car's body, the new engines attracted much attention in the motoring press, being the first new engine presented by Mercedes-Benz in more than ten years. The valves were operated by short rocker arms from an overhead camshaft. The engine was unusual in Europe at this time in having oversquare cylinder dimensions with a bore of 80.0mm and a stroke of only 72.8mm, which facilitated the design of an efficient cylinder head. The manufacturer was able to claim a top speed of 140km/h (87mph) for the saloons and 145km/h (90mph) for the cabriolets which was usefully faster than the 52 PS (38kW) powered 170S Cabriolet which the cabriolet version of the W187 replaced and from which its bodywork was derived. The new six-cylinder engine would form the basis, repeatedly enlarged and upgraded as the years went on, for a long line of six-cylinder engines powering mainstream Mercedes-Benz models including the six-cylinder version of the early S-Class models in the 1970s.

Because of the extra power in what was, by modern standards, a heavy car, the W187 was equipped with Duplex drum brakes.

With the sedan/saloon bodied cars about to be delisted by the manufacturer in May 1954, in April 1954 the "Cabriolet A" and its Coupé derivative were fitted with a new higher compression 85 PS (63kW) engine that had been developed for the soon to be announced Ponton bodied Mercedes-Benz W180. These faster sporting versions of the W187 continued in production for a further year.

The 220 saloon was replaced by the W105/W180 line in 1953. The coupé and cabriolet continued until August 1955.[2]

The saloon went out of production in May, 1954; the Cabriolet models continued for another 15 months until August 1955.

The body of the W187 saloon was closely modelled on the 1938 Mercedes-Benz W153, and despite the modern engine that powered it, already looked old fashioned to many observers on the day it was introduced. Two years earlier, in 1949, the Borgward Hansa had served notice that car design had moved on since the 1930s, and the manufacturer's own 1953 W120 confirmed that "modern" European cars were following the North American trend to lower wider bodied designs. This has been seen as an explanation for the W187's own unusually short production run of slightly above three years for the saloon and less than five years for the longest lived of the Cabriolet models.[2]

The W187 was immediately replaced with the Ponton bodied six cylinder Mercedes-Benz 220a (W180). When the cabriolet was withdrawn in 1955 there was no direct successor. However, slightly more than a year later the all-new Mercedes-Benz 220S Cabriolet and Coupé appeared, respectively in July and October 1956, using, like the saloon on which they were based, a modern ponton style body.

Mercedes-Benz 220 "Limousine" (W187)

Mercedes-Benz 220 "Cabriolet A" (W187)

Mercedes-Benz 220 "Cabriolet B" (W187)

Mercedes-Benz 220 Coupé (W187)