The Ponton was Daimler-Benz's first totally new Mercedes-Benz series of passenger vehicles produced after World War II. In July 1953, the cars replaced the pre-war-designed Type 170 series and were the bulk of the automaker's production through 1959, though some models lasted through 1962. The nickname comes from the German word for "pontoon" and refers to one definition of pontoon fenders — and a postwar styling trend, subsequently called ponton styling. The Ponton models were replaced by the "Heckflosse" or "Fintail" models There were essentially four types of Ponton cars. Note the "D" designates a diesel engine, and the suffix "b" and/or "c" are body variants introduced after the middle of 1959. The newer W110 190 produced in the 1960s featured an updated version of the M121 engine. This version had an increase of 5 horsepower over the original version horsepower while fuel consumption stayed the same at 11.5 liters of premium fuel per 100 km (20.5 mpg US) . The nose speed also increased to 150 kilometers per hour, an improvement from the original's 139. These performance increases were possible despite the new model's bodywork which was significantly heavier due to new safety implementations to the vehicle.
