i have a 300D 1978 non turbo and it seems to work pretty well throughout the years my dad had it. He had given it too me since it was his first car here in the U.S instead of just junking it out to the yards. I have done several repairs on it since then..but most of the jobs that i have done were not that hard (I.E: oil changes, injectors, fuel filters). the Non-turbo is a very reliable car. have no idea about the turbo version though. If you read the forums here a little bit more about turbo repairs on the later 300D 80's and higher (model W123), some of them can get a little ugly; almost to the point where its not feasible to fix the car anymore. I have almost close to 300,000 miles on my 300D 78 and i have replace all 5 injectors once and did the timing chain once just recently. As long as you can keep oil to the respectable levels in either W123, the car should be a lifer......granted that suspension and other things are kept clean