Charles Ostrofe, 79, is a retired electrical engineer who owned a consulting firm specializing in public-safety communications. He was born and raised in San Francisco, educated at Santa Clara University and has lived in Oakland for 40 years.

I acquired my 1960 Mercedes 190 SL roadster in 1971 for $1,700. It was in moderately good - but far from pristine - condition, and had 97,000 miles on the odometer. I had been in the Army in Germany in 1955 when the model first came out. I liked it very much, but it was beyond my budget. So, much later (at the beginning of my middle-age fantasy years), I picked up an old 190 SL. I fully expected it to be unreliable, expensive to maintain, uncomfortable and impractical, and that I would get rid of it in short order. Obviously, that's not what happened over the years.
After a couple of years driving the car, my confidence in it improved, and I took my two children, camping, skiing and on many long trips. The Mercedes had a jump seat big enough for an eight-year old behind the two regular seats.

Statistics:
The 190 SL was produced from 1955 through 1963, with very few changes over those years. It was a "baby brother" to the iconic 300SL Gullwing, and was produced on the same assembly line. About 25,000 190s were made over those years, as compared to only 3,000 300 SLs. Many aspects of the design are very similar between the two cars.
The 190 SL was not designed to be a "sports car" - it has a 1.9-liter engine and is quite heavy at 2,600 pounds, so one cannot "toss it around" like an old Austin-Healy. My Mercedes is more of a high-speed touring car. It is quite comfortable, well-sealed, relatively quiet and has a good heater, power brakes, and other amenities. And - most importantly - it is a daily driver, not a trailer queen, and it is a pleasure to drive it everywhere.

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