Cohort Outtake: 1952 Mercedes 220 Cabriolet A (W187) – A Classic In Its Time

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– Posted on June 16, 2023

(first posted 6/16/2017)      This is going to be a quick one, as I’ve got lots of other pressing business. But this very fine Mercedes 220 Cabriolet A (W187), identified as a 1952 model by William Rubano, who posted it at the Cohort, just has to have a bit of CC love here. Yes, its styling is mostly pre-war, as was its chassis, but under that beautiful hood sat a brand new SOHC inline six, the first of a long series of classic Mercedes six cylinder family (M180, M123, M110) that would not end until 1985 or so. So this is a marriage of the old and new, and one that was celebrated already at the time as a classic.

The W187 220 series was a big deal, as it marked Mercedes’ return to the luxury market, along with its larger and more exclusive 300 big brother. Both were based on Mercedes’ pre-war X-Frame chassis, and the 300s inline six was actually based on a prewar design too, but the 220’s six was all-new, and the first oversquare (80.0mm bore, 72.8mm stroke) six for the company. In its initial form, it produced 80 hp DIN (86 hp SAE), which was an excellent output for the times, and gave this cabriolet a genuine top speed of 90mph (145kmh).

This basic engine would be expanded and developed, ending up at 2.8 liters, and it a;lso spawned the DOHC M110 variant. These engines lasted until the mid 1980s, when they were finally replaced by the much more modern family of engines.

The 220 sedan was clearly out of date stylisticall in 1951, when a  number of new European sedans already sported the modern “pontoon” look. The sedan’s body was pretty heavily based on the four cylinder 170s, excpet for the longer front end and integrated headlights. These were pre-war designs, and Mercedes was playing it safe and conservative. The result is that the sedan’s life was rather short, and in 1954, it was replaced by the pontoon-styled new W180 220 series.

 

But the cabriolet and related coupe enjoyed a much more celebrated life, and somewhat longer too. Rather than being seen as old-school and dowdy, these were embraced as a neo-classic of sort in its time, and was a hot car with the celebrity set in its time. They were expensive, exclusive, and thumbed their nose at the current new style, and were successful as a consequence.

 

The cabriolet stayed in production well past the sedan’s end, and was built until August of 1955.

Somewhat curiously, its successor, the 220S coupe and cabriolet that arrived for 1957 was never held quite in the same esteem as its predecessor. It somehow came across stylistically as a bit lightweight and perhaps rather too feminine. It just didn’t strike the same chord that its predecessor did. That’s not to say it wasn’t desirable, and it became a collectible quite a long time ago, but without looking it up, I’m probably pretty safe in saying that the older cabriolet is probably worth a fair amount more than this newer one.

 

These cars were the last chance to buy a classic Mercedes cabriolet, a marque that had made a huge impression on the world with its superb cabriolets and roadsters in the 1920s and 1930s. It’s no surprise that not long after it disappeared from the market, neo-classic imitations like the Excalibur appeared to satisfy the seemingly endless thirst for classic Mercedes.