Would I buy an Mi8 ?
I wouldn't claim to be an expert on the Mi8 but having flown in them and having checked out the MTV (apparently the bees-knees of Mi8s) I would rather go by boat. Mi8s have a fundamental design flaw that puts the fuel in thin-walled cylindrical tanks outside the fuselage. Aux tanks are the same but mounted half way up the fuselage. Whenever they crash - which they do with monotonous regularity - they burn. I have seen some heavily modified MTVs that I believe Shell use which have floats and replacement windows that convert each window into an emergency exit - hell of an improvement over the previous models which have either just one or, on later versions two emergency exits.
As a work-horse and military machine it is an impressive helicopter especially in adverse winter conditions but the popularity of the Mi8 in less sophisticated parts of the world is breading a new type of workshop knocking out counterfeit parts (tail rotor blades for example) and the Russian parts control system is very easy to circumvent.
For moving 'stuff' - great 'flying truck', for moving people - a last resort ..... with the lack of western equipment making it almost certain it will be the only option you have if you are working in places where minimum cost is the only factor in the equation. That said, even the Mi8 is in short supply and MTVs are like hen's teeth.
C.KD