seems like steve an i are taking turns on this one, so here i go
there's been several threads on here about vintage vs. newer. what it all boils down to IMHO is do you really want a project that could take a year or more, or do you want to buy something you can hook up and go. believe me there are many times over the course of this last year when i thought, "boy if i just bought something newer, i could actually be out camping this weekend". i have no regrets on the route i've taken but i did underestimate the challenge of it all. anything older than twenty years is going to need some sort of attention whether you do the work yourself or pay someone to do it.
my advice to someone not sure which way to go would be to buy newer.