I can't speak to how long the engine in my '07 XE will ultimately last, but at 32k miles I have had no problems whatsoever with it and it has aadequate power for my needs. Nissan has used variants of this engine in many vehicles for years and, with the exception of a run of bad engines in the Sentra a few years back, as far as I know it has proved to be a durable powerplant. As for the comments about gas mileage in the V6, I drive pretty tamely and usually average about 21 city (manual transmission) and 23 highway. If you want to believe a 265hp V6 is going to almost match that, you just go ahead and believe that. My impression is that most of the reports of 20+mpg on the VQ40DE on this forum are posted by guys who have had a tad too much of the kool-aid.