Book excerpt: The W201 was a compact saloon designed to address both concerns about fuel economy generated by the first oil crisis in the 1970s and competition for sales from the BMW 3 Series. Many doubted that Mercedes could deliver a compact car whilst retaining their traditional qualities. But the W201 soon won them over. For here was a car that was a real Mercedes in the tradition of the time - it was just smaller. With around 200 photographs, the book features the reasons behind the need to build a new compact saloon in the 1980s. It covers the styling, engineering and specification changes introduced over the lifetime of the model; gives full technical specifications, including paint and interior trim choices and production tables and vehicle number sequences. The story of Mercedes' long and exciting struggle to win the German Touring Car Championship with the 190 is covered. There is a chapter on the special US variants and, finally, a chapter on buying and owing a 201-series Mercedes.