FWIW, I drive a '94 Ford Ranger XLT, 4.0L, V6, 5-speed, 4x4, extended cab. It has over 120k miles on it, and the only things that I've had go bad were the clutch slave cylinder and the thermostat--maybe $300 worth of repairs total.
I did have to replace one of the automatic hubs, but that was only because I stupidly tweaked it trying to get out of a mud hole. (BTW, never try to force your wheels to turn if they don't want to... I later found out that the wheel was between two pretty stationary slabs of rock under all the mud. Something had to give, and it was the hub mechanism.)
All in all it's been a pretty useful, reliable, and fun truck.