KitchenAid® Pro Line® 7 qt. Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer

I promised myself not to do a review for a full year... it's time. I bought this as a pre retirement gift to myself, knowing that once I retired I'd want to distance myself further from prepared foods and get into making bread, which I never had any success with by hand. I chose this over the tilt head for durability, and went for this size not because I expect to be doing large batches, but because of the horsepower. This machine is getting a lot of use - I make two loaves a week, it handles a double batch of thick bagel dough easily once a week, and shows no signs of weakening. I've gone from "I can't make bread to save my life" to making excellent breads (we haven't had store bought bread since I got this machine), pizza doughs, really good Montreal style bagels , English muffins, and cinnamon buns as good as those ones at the mall. Even some respectable puff pastry! The strength of this motor lets me cream cold butter straight from the fridge with sugar really quickly (haven't tried creaming butter alone). I agree with some other reviewers that with small amounts, ingredients at the bottom of the bowl can be missed but I'm going to get the paddle with scraper and expect that will help. So far I have bought and used the spiralizer, pasta and meat grinder attachment - just be careful ordering those because with the latter two there are different pieces that come in some packages and not others. I regret that buying the grinder package without the plastic cone for sausage making as I haven't been able to find that piece separately. You'll find the pasta attachments also come in different combos. Go for the full package if you can. I have enjoyed these attachments, and make the most use of the meat grinder. My only beef about the machine is sometimes the attachments come out - this is not a machine flaw at all, but the result of my fingers being arthritic and the screw knob being smooth and small. If I had any suggestion for improvement it would be to provide more of a wing-nut shaped knob, or even a special larger one that can be turned with the hand instead of a couple of fingers. Or maybe an "arthritic adaptor" of some kind to put over the knob. I love this machine, and now that I'm fully retired I'm constantly trying new things. Since we're enjoying such great bread and baked products, I'm looking forward to getting the grain mill attachment and seeing whether grinding my own flours is as much fun.