I worked at a British Leyland dealer around the time that '79 MGB was new, I was in High School. Those were some awful years for British cars; as others have pointed out, they were very behind the curve in terms of dealing w encroaching regulations in terms of emissions, crash protections, etc.
I remember thinking that they'd really ruined the MGB at the time. They looked like schit w those bumpers, ran weak w the single carb and catalytic converter, etc. There is just no reason to buy that particular vintage, unless you're trying to make some seller really happy. Buy an older one, if anything, they are more common because they sold better.
It's like the mid-year 911s, ('74-'77), before they all got so expensive. There was no logical reason to buy one when there were plenty of early cars and SCs, etc. around for similar $$ once you'd done all the repairs to the 2.7.
