well take if from me, i work for a Mercedes Dealer, and i would not want one of these cars. The older ones are nice and run well. but they do cost a pretty penny to maintain.
My father traded his Mercedes in every 4 years for a new one and he was real disappointed with the 1976 model year, maybe because of the government mandated emission controls (or for whatever reason) he kept the 72 until he died in `79. It seems the 70`s started the beginning of the end of anything good in almost all cars...........except the Japanese cars. (I know I`ll hear something about that last comment).