David,
I bought a new one in 1999, fuel injection model, it was a great bike, I did 12K miles on it and never had any problems. Look for service history which I think is the key to reliability. as it is on any through bread. I had mine serviced by a guy in Ringwood from new as most main dealer are useless epecially 3X, where I bought the bike and the dealer in Reading I doubt could change a spark plug and get it right. When I moved to West Sussex Petro @ Moto Morini in the next village serviced it (he is ex Ducati, race team engineer) and really knows his stuff. I doubt any one in the UK knows more about Ducati's than he does. Service used to cost £200 and everything done right.(both are less than 50 miles from reading)
Personally I found it very hard on the suspention, hit a big bump and all of a sudden you were 2 ft off apex, but I guess that was one of its fobels. Petro sorted that out which made a huge differance to back lane scratching.
One mod I found greatly improved the enjoyment was race cans and air filter mod (cut the top off the air box) that made it 10-15 bhp more, and it really flew. The Ringwood guy sorced stuff from Pasta land, again half the cost than from main dealer.
Good luck with your search,
AJ
Kept it for 2 1/2 years, not one problem and stupidly sold it last year 
