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 got a white one the first time. It got a RDR at some point, but we send it to let it get fixed. After that I experienced no more problems with it. But then my sister's friend wanted one too and I could get a new one. The Elite version. I still have that one to this day and absolutely love it! :D