Louis,

You have to read forum posts in context, on average people are doing thousands of trouble free miles. They generally post here when something goes wrong.
If you buy a basket case or dont maintain an old car properly its going to cost big money to put right and usually more than the car is worth.
Putting low mileage on these cars has as much impact as regular oil changes, if its got 143k on it already you might as well add a load more and enjoy the car on the road.....in my opinion ;-)