I have had Cuisinart for over 20 years and it is still going strong, I bought a second one about 6 or 7 years ago.
They were the original for the home market and I think they are still one of the best.
In any event only buy a direct drive not belt driven model what ever you choose.

I have an older 7-cup Cuisinart and a new 3-cup Little Pro Plus (also Cuisinart). The big one works well, but I just love the Little Pro.

It has a heavy duty motor (more powerful than the similarly sized Mini Prep), slicing/shredding disks, a citrus juicer attachment with 3 sizes of reamer, and a chute that you can use when you're shredding or slicing that blows the food directly into a bowl (so you can slice/shred large amounts of food without stopping).

I used the shredding disk and chute to make a huge bowl of shredded red cabbage for an Indonesian "slaw." It was actually fun watching the cabbage shoot into the bowl.

Anyway, I probably need to get a life, but I have an almost maternal affection for the Little Pro. I've also used it to make bean dip, pie crust (came out very tender, even though the Little Pro doesn't come with a dough blade), and a bazillion other things.

I like it as much as my little egg-shaped Cuisinart egg cooker, and that's saying something :)

I wanted the Cuisinart but looked at others because of price. And then I stumbled over an obvious error in pricing on the internet and snapped it up. It's the 11 cup power prep and I really like it. I'm still on the climbing side of the learning curve since a half century of hand chopping is hard to overcome. I can't compare it to other brands, but it does seem to be the standard against which all others are measured.

McCall, could you please explain further why a direct drive is better than a belt drive?

I'll attempt to answer the last question ... direct drive technology connects the motor directly to the shaft and the belt drive uses a belt between the motor and the shaft.
The former allows the machine to come on at optimum speed and maintain torque. The belt drive can slip while coming to speed or slow down if what you're chopping is hard or tough. I'm sure an engineer could explain it better, but McCall is right -- get direct drive... you'll probably have to dig a bit to find out if it is direct drive. A quick google search found the Cuisinart 11 and 14 cup power prep, Wolfgang Puck 900 watt, Magimix 51oo, Robot Coupe R301U all listing direct drive. I'm sure there are others. The kitchen aid site didn't say (at least I couldn't find it) but KA looks like it would be direct drive.