owner (1976-1979): Uwe Medla / uwe.medla@web.de / Germany
These are the photos that Uwe Medla sent to Jeff Miller when he discovered that his 1957 Mercedes-Benz Type 190 sedan was still alive and well. Uwe's name appears in the Kraftfahrzeugbrief (the log book of all of the owners) that Jeff still keeps with the car. Uwe sold the car in 1979. Since that time, it changed ownership five times and was exported to the USA.
Here is Uwe displaying the huge Webasto sunroof. He would have been just a few weeks past his 20th birthday when he registered the car back on July 12, 1976. Note the black hubcaps and the Type 190SL fog lamps. As of June, 2005, the fog lamps are still functional and mounted on the car. Also visible are the "controversial" fender-mounted combination driving and blinker lamps with chrome "spears" above each head lamp. The originality and authenticity of these "fender spears" on the 4 cylinder Ponton models has been called in to question many times, and the truth may be that they were probably not a factory-installed option on the 4 cylinder Mercedes-Benz Pontons but they could be added by the customer's special request at any of the authorized Mercedes-Benz agents of the day. They were, of course, standard features on the more up-scale 6 cylinder Ponton models such as the Type 219, 220S and 220SE.
Note the license number: Fü AZ605, designating the city of Fürth where the Ponton was registered. The large license plate frame is still mounted on the car today. The D plaque was not on the car when Jeff Miller bought it in 1989 but he found a large D sticker to place in the same location not knowing, until seeing these photos, that it wore a similar badge while it was in Germany. The placement of the D badge is very specific on this model because the right side license plate lamp does double duty and also shines outward to illuminate the badge at night. This photo also shows that the car had the original style tail lamps at this point. They have since been replaced with Type 190b (6/1959-8/1961) style tail lamps.
Here is the section of the Kraftfahrzeugbrief which identifies Uwe Medla as one of the owners of this car. It also lists the license number: Fü AZ 605. Other data includes the birth date of the registrant 5.6.56 (June 5, 1956), the city of registration is Fürth, and the date of registration is July 12, 1976. This document still exists with the car today.
Here is Uwe's girlfriend in 1976. She has since become his wife.
This photo shows unpainted hubcaps. This is how they were when Jeff Miller first saw the car in 1988.
It was really quite an amazing experience to exchange emails with Uwe in Germany when he first discovered that his old Ponton was still in good working condition. We were both excited and surprised to be talking to each other about this great old Mercedes-Benz survivor.
Created: May 28, 2003 Jeff Miller
Thanks to Uwe Medla