I absolutely abused my first gen and still she gave over 400k of very fun miles.
I bought it with 23k on the clock and I sold it to the pick-n-pull with over 440k on the clock.
I was so ignorant when I first bought it and I took it down every trail I could find and was not very careful.
She always came away with new scratches and bruises, but she taught me so much and by the end I had so much more experience.
If you can find a first-gen SE (non-turbo, the turbos were crap), and it still drives well, I say go for it.
They truly are bullet proof. Because I wasn't in a position to keep her and turn her into the project car I wanted to, I sold her off. If I had just held onto her for another 3 months, I'd still have her and would be well into rebuilding the engine.