Five months ago I bought a 1971 144 that had obviously been cared for well: absolutely everything worked. It's been great so far, everything still works, and it's been a very different experience to past old cars that I bought needing work (a '72 145E among them). The previous owner of my 145E stopped investing in the car but continued running it for years, and I ended up having to replace many many parts. Mostly the kind of things that are a real pain, like the heater blower motor. I began to really dislike that car. In my opinion, it's better to pay more for a car that is cared for by its owner than take on something that somebody gave up on, but is selling cheap. The details, such as B18 motor, M40 rather than desirable M41 trans, dual carbs, etc., are less important than the overall condition of the car.