Mercedes-Benz does not build many cars like the Mercedes-Benz 170S: a 4-door saloon / 1949–1955 / 2-door, 2- and 4-seater cabriolets / 1949–1951 with Petrol engine, built from 1949 to 1955 in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted.
How it came about
The Mercedes-Benz 170 S is a luxury car which was produced by Mercedes-Benz from 1949 until 1955 in various gasoline and diesel powered forms. It was initially offered with a 1.8 liter version of the 1.7 liter inline-four cylinder M136 engine used in the slightly smaller production type 170 V. It was the first Mercedes-Benz to carry in its name the suffix “S” (for Sonder modell (Special model) denoting a superior level of comfort and quality. As such, its intended market was successful business owners and company directors. The 170 S was released in May 1949, initially sharing the chassis number of the W136 170 V, and closely resembled it.
However, in several respects it was more directly a development from the six-cylinder W153 Mercedes-Benz 230 which the company had produced, albeit in small numbers, between 1938 and 1943. The first 170 S upgrade occurred in January 1952, being further distanced from the 170 V with its own chassis number W191. Mercedes' introduction a year earlier of the 2.2-liter, six-cylinder M180 engined Mercedes-Benz W187 luxury 220 model, positioned between the 170 S and the company's flagship, 3.0-liter Mercedes-Benz W186 Adenauer tourers undermined the four cylinder 170 S's luxury niche. With the arrival of the all-new 1.8 liter Mercedes-Benz W120 180 "Ponton" in 1953 the 170 S was discontinued and a 170 S-V employing the 170 S' larger engine but the 170 V's slightly smaller body was introduced. Reverting to the W136 chassis code, the S-V ceased production in 1955.
The hardware
Under the skin sits Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2845 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Mercedes-Benz's history is not in doubt: the Mercedes-Benz W136 came before it; the Mercedes-Benz W120/W121 followed it; it was built at Stuttgart. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Porsche 356, the Citroën 2CV. Its Mercedes-Benz stablemates include the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and the Mercedes-Benz C124.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Mercedes-Benz 170S — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.