I just bought a 72 220D (W115) for $2000.

Mine was fortunante to come with a rebuilt motor, new paintjob, and immaculate interior. I guess I stumbled on to it.

This car is a good looking, classic mercedes. I feel good driving in it. It handles very well for an old car, consistantly suprising me with how good it grips the road. Acceleration is not great, but once you start driving it, you get used to it. I feel safe in my area (Santa Cruz, CA), but was a little scared taking it to the confusing network of many-lane highways in San Jose. I find daily city driving is fine, small highways with long ramps are fine, but it gets a little hairy on large, short ramped, crazy highways. Not a car to take to LA or NY, IMO.

I also enjoy working on it very much. The motor sits neatly in the bay allowing much room around it for servicing. I replaced the vacume pump diaphram without removing the radiator or pump. My hands fit in there with room to spare -- this suprised me after working on an inline 6 W201.

The only thing I would recommend you watch for is noise. On the highway, my fourspeed must be doing 3500RPM at 65 ... which is not super pleasant in a car with no real firewall or interior insulation. I am looking in to better soundproofing my car.