Comment by SoftTalker

I love my older (80's and 90's) Mercedes. Reliable and pretty simple to work on. But I would not buy a new one for similar reasons as you cite for your BMW.

But parts for the older ones are getting harder to come by. The Classic Center isn't what it once was. You used to be able to get almost any part for any car but many things are NLA for cars that are only 20-30 years old.