High mileage on a 97 Taurus

[fourdoor]

Hi. I'm new here so I don't know if this question has come up before, but I'm thinking of buying a 97 Taurus GL wagon with about 156,000 miles on it. I was told by a couple of people, that you can get some very high mileage out of these cars and have heard of them going upwards of 300,000 miles reliably. I believe the tranny was replaced by Ford, about at about 100,000 miles.
Is it true that the taurus is a good vehicle when it comes to high milage, and I'm also wondering if anyone has tried to replace the oil in theirs with a full synthetic to improve engine life?
I've always driven F-150's but don't need the power or cargo room any more, so the taurus seems the way to go.
Thanks for any help.

[drdisque]

the engine will run forever, but unfortunately, you'll be replacing transmissions every 70-90k miles.

I personally wouldn't try to switch to synthetic in an engine that already has 156k on it and hasn't been on it before, theres a good chance that would cause leaks.