You can find a reliable daily driver and it will most likely be a 123 or 126. Just not as many of those 116's around (too bad though, a lovely car). But you WILL become a DIY type if you buy one of these cars. You reallly don't have a choice. Also, buy two, because you'll likely have only one running perfectly at one time. There is truly always some thing that needs to be fixed, tweaked or maintained.

Kevin
1979 240D manual
1984 190D manual