I've owned a 1973 220D. It was my first Diesel. It had PS, AT and A/C. Yes, you had to be a patient driver. In reward for your patience, you got a very dependable driver. If I still had my 220D, I would consider updating the glow plug system. It took a long time to get the original glow plugs hot.

The A/C was manual and while not troublefree, it wasn't a big pain either, much less that my subsequent MBs. The original A/C was R12 - you might want to see if this particular car has been upgraded to R134a.

Good luck!

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Tom Evans
69 280SE 91K (wish I still had it)
73 220D 98K
78 300D 134K
78 300D 185K
81 300SD 301K (still have)
82 300SD 321K (still have)
84 300D 268K
84 6.2 Diesel GMC Suburban 225K (a whole different story!)