I did a lot of reading about mixers this summer, spending waaaay too many hours on the 'net :) Frankly, IMHO, the bottom line is all brands do a good job with cakes, icing, cookie dough, & whipping & creaming. Read the reviews online, visit the forums & it's the same story: most people love their mixer brand; a few people who bought the brand got a lemon & will tell you different. It's when you start kneading multiple batches of stiff bread doughs that a few brands stand out. The Cuisinart has a timer & a fold feature that sounds nice. A caveat I read about is that the bowl is tall & narrow, so when you fill it to its professed capacity, the batter is over the top of the beater.

What a great thread - I have the original white, lift bowl Model K 5A. And I have to confess that many times over the years I've been tempted by the siren call of those glorious cobalt, pistachio and and chrome machines. But I have a strong sentimental attachment to my Kitchen Aid and I still remember the day my husband and I purchased it. While waiting to have the tires changed on our 1971 Plymouth Duster we wandered across the parking lot to a Best Products store. He spied me eyeing the mixer and encouraged me to buy it. I thought it was too extravagant - we were living on one income and he still had 2 more years of med school. But we had been scrimping and watching every penny and DH was working in the lab on weekends so he bought it for me. I still have the receipt, I use it as a bookmark inside my Joy of Cooking. That was 11/20/1976 and I paid $164.89 for it. And it's also the first thing I look for when I check a bridal registry - it's my favorite gift. Maire

Bobby if you still have the KA classic you were talking about,keep it! Maybe someday you will run across some one that can repair it. Or if it were me I would at least keep the attachments. I had an old (Hobart made) KA that I gave to my niece in South Carolina several years ago. I told her to bring it back on her next trip home. I have a 6 quart pro sitting in my garage colecting dust I will give her in exchange. KA has a great return/repair policy. 9 times out of 10 if someone sends a mixer back for repair it is completly replaced with another mixer. For the person asking about the Hobart N-50 mixer. KA does NOT make them anymore. Kitchen Aid has not made Hobart mixers since the mid 80's. Thats when Dart Kraft bought the KA division from Hobart. Later to be bought out by Whirlpool. Whirlpool now also owns JenAir, and Maytag in addition to KA.

I have an old (30+ years) KA-Hobart 4.5, which has been a real workhorse. The only limit has been the capacity of the bowl. I also have a KA Pro 6, which DH got for a Christmas gift in 2006. With a special offer from Amazon and a rebate from KA, he ended up paying $275.00. I haven't had any problem with this machine laboring with anything, including heavy whole-grain doughs. Nor have I experienced the loudness some have mentioned. Maybe it differs from machine to machine? Wattage can't be trusted. Most wattage figures only list the amount the machine pulls from the outlet, not the wattage it puts out. For example, the $1500 5-quart Hobart now available for home use actually has a very low wattage. So what? Wattage doesn't indicate power, at least not as the number is commonly used. Here's a quote from Cooks Illustrated's last review of mixers regarding the wattage issue: "If I hadn't included the Hobart in the lineup, I might never have discovered the sneaky truth behind wattage ratings. Most mixers list their power in watts; Hobart is the only one to use horsepower. When I learned that 1/6 HP equals a mere 124 watts, I scratched my head in puzzlement. How could this quiet, powerful workhorse have the lowest wattage rating in such a hacking, shuddering group (from 250 watts to 1,000 watts)? Turns out Hobart is the only mixer to list output power rather than input power. What's the difference? Output wattage is the amount of power the motor actually produces--which flows out of the motor, moves through the mixer arm, and, ultimately, smacks the ingredients around. Every other mixer lists input wattage, which is simply the power that flows from the electrical outlet into the mixer's motor. What does input wattage tell you about the power of a mixer? Absolutely nothing--it's purely a marketing gimmick. To wit, the six models that failed the bread dough test (our initial round) had power ratings ranging from low to high, mostly high (275, 350, 400, 450, 700, 700). In addition, every other test showed absolutely no correlation between mixer performance and wattage. (If manufacturers were willing to provide output wattage figures, comparison would be easy, but this key bit of data is never offered.)" So apparently, whatever mixer you decide to buy, wattage shouldn't be the criterion. Carol