Ha... I have an '81 380SL and I have to say it's one of the most unreliable Mercedes I've had. Watch out for the automatic transmissions on all these older Mercs as well... 2 of my old Mercs don't go past 2nd gear. Try driving on the freeway in 2nd gear. Rebuild, installed trannys on old SL's are around $2500 as well.

Surprisingly, my single-row timing chain has held up for 150K miles so far (with no maintenance). I'd say that the engines/injection on these old SL's are solid.. but it's everything else (lots of control boxes, relays that blow, etc. that cause problems) every month or so, it seems. Very hard to diagnose problems with 30 different control boxes.

Also.. 380SL's are slugs that still only get about 12 miles to the gallon. Biggest positive of the car is that it looks good.