My '96 has been in our family since '97. My mom bought it second hand off a Ford dealer with 27000km, then my dad took it when she bought an Escape, then he gave it to me when he bought an Edge (we are a Ford family lol). It currently has 360000km+ and I use it every day in the winter, and some days when I dont want to take the SVT out lol.
It hasnt been perfect, but damn near close. In 21 years its had: rear timing cover resealed (early 2000s), 1 rad, 1st transmission (cooler cracked and mixed coolant with the tranny fluid), front ball joints (twice), sway bar links (twice, soon to be a third), 1 wind shield, fuel pump, couple sets of tires, tune-ups, fuel filters, brake jobs etc. Cat-back system and Y pipe, driver side headlight assembly, 2nd transmission (dad shut it off on the highway and nuked the front pump, currently still in the truck being held together with Lucas), 1 upper and lower manni gasket and valve cover, 1st set of shocks (done @ 340000km), 1st set of rear springs (done @ 360000km) and finally the fuel filler neck (converted to '97 spec)
The wheel bearings, brake calipers, suspension bushings, exhaust manifolds, engine and pretty much everything else not listed above is original from 1996.
So to make a long post even longer, these trucks f***ing rock.