@classiccarsandcampers: At first glance, your brain says Mercedes 190E. Then you get to the back and things become considerably more interesting. This is the Schulz 190E City, also known as the 190E Compakt, an extraordinarily rare hatchback conversion created by German coachbuilder Schulz Tuning around 1990. Schulz took the W201 190E, shortened the rear and incorporated the hatch from a W124 estate. The result was something Mercedes itself wasn't offering: a compact, rear-wheel-drive hatchback with a 2.6-litre straight-six producing around 160bhp. Think premium Golf GTI rival, but approached in a wonderfully unconventional Mercedes way. These weren't simply styling exercises. Schulz actually offered the City in three and five-door form, although production was tiny. Exactly how tiny is disputed. Some sources claim just four were made, while others suggest around six; either way, mikniscule numbers. Perhaps the best part of the story is that Mercedes had explored its own compact W201 idea years earlier. Its 1981 Stadtwagen prototype never reached production, leaving Schulz to have a crack at the idea independently. More than three decades later, it's hard not to wonder what might have happened if Mercedes had put something like this into the showrooms. Should Mercedes have built a 190E hatchback?

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Friday 09 October 2026 18:02:32 GMT