Gaggia Syncrony Compact - have had this machine for about 5 years and it cost around £350. When it is good, it is very very good, but when it doesn't work, oh dear! The customer service at the Halifax depot where you have to send your machine to be repaired is appalling, and you have to pay over £100 for them to fix it, unless you take out the extended warrantee. Ours has been back three times in five years. You need to use filtered water in the machine as limescale build up can be a problem - although we used filtered water from day one and the depot still used this as a reason for it failing. The steamer nozzle can be hit and miss with its power producing varying results with the frothed milk. On the positive side the coffee it produces is lovely with a nice crema and I Love the fact it grinds from fresh beans (althogh you can also use ground coffee), and it is so much nicer than instant, which as a result of getting this machine, I can't drink any more! The machine can make two cups of coffee at once.

It can be a bit of a pain to clean out the coffee grounds but you get used to the routine. I would also recommend descaling as per the instruction booklet once a month to keep it in good order.

I would not buy a Gaggia again based on my experience of this machine.

UPDATE 14.09.09: It appears that Gaggia UK have gone bust and the Halifax Service Centre is no longer in operation - which calls into question the provision of service and parts. I would suggest looking into this before you make any purchase.