i met a guy with a stage 1 4x4, it had covered 160 thousand miles on the original engine, only having 2 headgaskets & a set of lifters & it still sounded sweet!
if you want one as an every day car, then try to get a facelift with aircon, its such a joy in the summer. i was thinkink of selling mine, but trying to find an escos of the same caliber for sensible money was a joke, so i've just done a major service on mine & will keep it for a bit longer.