My 2nd gen truck, a 1500 4WD with the 318, ran quite well but suffered from front track bar and suspension bushing issues. There are several excellent upgrades you can get to solve the issue.
Some folks would say the transmissions in these trucks are problematic but mine wasn't. I put almost 180K miles on the truck, used it to tow a TT and light car hauler, it went off-road to go hunting and fishing and it only failed me once due to a problem with the intake manifold gasket and a vacuum leak. There are known fixes for that as well.
Having said all that, inspect it as you would any other 17 year old used truck. There are lots of good checklists online for inspecting used vehicles and I'd encourage you to print one out and use it.