The Mercedes-Benz W21 is a Standard length: / 4-door ”Limousine” (sedan) / 4-door ”Limousine” (sedan) (from 1935) / Torpedo bodied 2-door “Tourenwagen” / Cabriolet / Sport-Roadster / / Long wheelbase (from 1 from Mercedes-Benz, built from 1933 to 1936, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 1,961 .
Where it came from
The Mercedes-Benz W 21 was a six-cylinder passenger car launched in 1933 using the name Mercedes-Benz Typ 200. It was one of several Mercedes-Benz models known, in its own time, as the Mercedes-Benz 200 (or sometimes, in this case, as the Mercedes-Benz Typ(e) 200) and is therefore in retrospect more commonly referred to using its Mercedes-Benz works number, “W21”.
The car was a development upmarket from the manufacturer's W15, itself introduced two years earlier. The W21 replaced the Mercedes-Benz W02 (in its own day known as the Mercedes-Benz Typ(e) 200 “Stuttgart”) which the company had been manufacturing since 1928.
Under the skin
Power comes from 1,961 . 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 2700 mm or / 3050 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Mercedes-Benz W02; its successor was the Mercedes-Benz W143; assembly was at Stuttgart, Germany. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Plymouth Deluxe — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Mercedes-Benz catalogue sit the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and the Mercedes-Benz C124.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Mercedes-Benz W21 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.