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My flying club has been operating a 1971 Cardinal RG (serial number 35) for about 15 years. Prior to 2014 we only had one gear issue. A pilot wheelbarrowed it on landing and slightly bent the motor mount, which caused the nose gear to stick on extension, but loading the airplane up got it down. We had to have the motor mount rebuilt to fix this problem.
Over the years we've had to replace some switches in the gear system, and we added a 'gear motor operating' LED warning light to alert us if the pump for some reason didn't shut off. That's never happened to us, but it is a known failure mode that if combined with a leaking hydraulic fitting could cause all the hydraulic fluid to be pumped overboard.
In 2014 a distracted pilot forgot to lower the gear. We had it fixed because we love this airplane.
The 1971 Cardinal does not use fuel bladders. It has two 25 gallon usable tanks, which went to 30 in later years. The 1971 Cardinal has the same 'on/off' fuel selector as a C-150. This can be an annoyance when one tanks drains more than the other. Latter years have a proper left/right/both/off switch.
I file for 130 knots and generally see 135, I don't flog the engine. I the latter models gained a few knots from cowl cleanup.
The Cardinal is super comfortable, it's cabin width is 48 inches, more than a 182, Bonanza, Mooney, and any piston Piper that doesn't' have an airstair. There is a huge amount of headroom also, and a huge passenger area.
The IO-360 motor is excellent. A big advantage of the 71 model is that it has real dual mags, in latter years Cessna switched that dangerous single drive magneto version.
Door are a big issue with Cardinals. You need to get the aftermarket 'stoppers' to keep the huge doors from being damaged in a crosswind. Getting the correct size and installation of the door seals is critical. It took us a while to get the doors to seal correctly, but we got them working well eventually.
One important prebuy item on any Cardinal is the center carry-through spar. A prebuy must include pulling down the ceiling to allow inspection of this spar. Corrosion programs with this part are rare, but they happen if the SCAT tubes are not maintained.
Parts availability is good, especially considering how long ago 1971 was. Cardinals need a mechanic with Cardinal experience. The Cardinal has little in common with ordinary Cessnas and you don't want to pay an A&P to learn how to maintain one.
The Cardinal is more maintenance intensive than our Warrior and Archer, but it is also a LOT more airplane.
I hope this helps.