I got my 360 elite in 2007 and it only failed the day Mass Effect 2 came out (Crashed during gameplay) and due to the error being an E74 error I had it fixed for free and no problems since.
So in all I have had the 1st 360 I ever owned.
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I've had mine since 08' and it's never RROD'd on me once. The only demonstrable issues that have arisen is the disc tray occasionally not opening, but other than that, it's pretty tip top much to my surprise.