I keep hearing this, but I don't see it. I'm still regularly finding W123s in the junkyards (although not as regularly as 5-7 years ago). I see W123s and W126s on the road pretty regularly. Some parts are getting hard to find, but not impossible. My rear view mirror is apparently NLA, but I was able to find a new one on eBay. The beauty of these cars is there is always some way you can patch them together.

In contrast, this is something I am trying to buy on my 20 year old Volkswagen. Nobody sells it in North America and I need to buy it from Germany, shipped to a VW dealer in Canada and then maybe a 2-3 week wait. Other than putting an aftermarket intake, there is no easy way to fabricate something like this.

https://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.de/schlauch-fc3a35.html

I would be in trouble if that was my daily driver. I have daily driven W123s for 8 years and never had a problem with parts availability. My car did get quite a bit of attention in Vancouver however.

Dkr.