DH saw this article the other day "10 Cars Most Likely to go 200k Miles" and the Taurus is the only non-Japanese one to make the list. Makes me laugh whenever people dog on Fords :)
We had a decade long lesson on the difference between popular wisdom and reality, when it comes to vehicles that are "known" to be junk, based on the brand, or specific model.
In 2000 we bought a new Dodge Intrepid, base model with the 2.7 V6. We drove it for the next ten years and 190K miles with very, very little spent on actual repairs, and way more than average spent on obsessive maintenance. I did the oil every 5K, and every two years EVERY fluid in the car was replaced, trans, coolant, brakes, etc..... At the ten year mark we were in solid shape financially, and the Wife decided that a new CRV was her next car, and since she had a high paying job, she wrote a check for one. We sold the Dodge to a repair shop and they are STILL using it as a daily loaner. They have almost 300K on it. It looks like a pile of well hammered shit, and it runs great.
OTOH, many knowledgeable folks will tell you that that was a horrible car, very prone to oil sludging, unreliable, and to be avoided as a used car. IMHO, it really helps to have "good bones" and a Toyota will generally last a heck of a lot longer that most of the lesser Chrysler products out there, but it's amazing what a religiously obsessive maintenance campaign can due when it comes to creating an outlier.