Just my two cents since I've had a 444 and many 122s. I've driven both coast to coast.

Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the lines and lightness of the PV. They are more fun to drive.

The 444 is basically WWII tech and design. The PV has a substantially deficient passenger comfort quotient when compared to a 122. PVs are MUCH louder.

I had put a B18 and D type OD in my 444, so there was a drop in engine speed, and improvement in mileage, but it didn't really change the sound transmission characteristics of the body.

It is MUCH easier to add an overdrive in a 122. It's a 3 hour job if you have all the parts.

As was already mentioned, the PV suspension is from another time, and drum brakes don't really help (I know you can swap discs from a 122 onto a PV).

Also, just looking down the road, parts specific to the PV are going to be more difficult to come by than for the 122. Re: bodies/body parts - the number of PVs hiding barns, yards, junkyards is rapidly diminishing. Not as true for the 122.

Stock seats are more comfortable in a 122.

I don't know how the two compare from a collision perspective, but I'd rather be in a 122.

If I could find a great PV body to build into an around town car, I'd have a difficult time resisting, (as long as I could also keep my 122) but for as much driving as it seems that you do, I'd find the best 122 body I could afford, change over the best stuff from your current car and not look back.