I've been doing some research and have received a bunch of help simply from looking at posts on this site. Anyway, thank you for that, and now for my point. I have been looking for a new car(new for me) and have decided a 190 diesel would be perfect. I've been looking for an economical car and...well that's my biggest thing I should say. I have found a few but most of them are automatic. I prefer manual transmission and I know that they're usuallybetter on gas. Is there much difference on gas mileage between an automatic and 5 speed 190D? Would it be worth it all to swap transmissions or should I keep searching for a manual or just get an auto...? And so on. Sorry for the dumb questions and thanks for any help and info you can give.

 

I just realized I posted this in the wrong place, sorry.

 

That's fine, I'll move it to the diesel forum, leave a reminder here plus send you an email

Yes, forthree reasons.

The 2.2L automatic is a very slow while trying to accelerate. Generally it'll take me over 10 seconds to hit 60mph. With an automatic you can avoid it sort of. When you're at a dead stop, switch the stick into 2nd, then when you're at about 4000 rpm switch to 3rd, and when you're at about 40mph, switch to "D" or drive. In the 190D hand book it says Mercedes doesn't recommend downshifting with the automatic, but it never says anything about upshifting. The car does seem to pick up the pace a little quicker. The 2.5L non-turbo I am not sure if it's much better accelerating.

Reason two is resale value! I have seen plenty of high mileage manual 190D's go for $4000 simply because of the stick shift. Where as the auto's generally go for $2500 give or take.

Another might be reliability. With the stick you won't have to worry about vaccum leaks or tranny modulator failure because there isn't anything like that attached to the transmission that I am aware of. If anything happensyou can eliminatethe modulator and vaccum going bad, then start with flex disks, center bearing and subframe bushings.

Dunno. I get ~34mpg with an auto 2.2L... 85% highway driving at 55-85mph

 

My 190D automatic is the slowest car I've ever driven. I think in a quarter mile a peddle bike would beat it.

 

Maybe a 300CDT might be good too? Well I guess I ought to keep looking, any advice?

 

Turbo would be highly recommended by everyone here probably.Defined with a'T' in whatever the car is, 190DT, 300DT, etc

 

..... a 84 190D auto and a 87 with 5-speed. I get 29 mpg with the 84 no matter what.

With the 5-speed it is super nice on long trips, topping at 37 mpg. Around town I get 30 in the summer with air, and 34 in the winter.

As I had owned MB diesels from 57 180 D, to 79 240D and others in-between, the 190D is the first diesel I can drive and keep up with traffic. Slow is relative. I find the automatic is just as adequate as the manual, although if I ever need a "turbo" boost, I would manually switch off the AC while accelerating, (such as at freeway on-ramps!)

As for conversion, anything is possible, though not always feasible. By the time you're done, you may wish you hadn't started! You would not want to do it again.

BTW, I need a good used automatic for a 85 190D for a third vehicle. (Normally, I would get a bid to include installation with used parts.)