I'd go with Kitchen Aid. I've had several Oster blenders and all crapped out on me at various times. We use ours everyday for smoothies, soups, ice slushies, bread crumbs, etc. and the motors just won't handle it. I am serious when I say it's used several times a day; most blenders anymore aren't meant to be used that often. I had bought Oster because so many people said they were awesome. Of the last three, the first one lasted several months (I did love it while it worked) and a piece broke off where it wasn't possible to fix it (the motor still worked great). So we bought another one thinking we just got a dud. The second one didn't last as long and did the same thing but this time the motor was also messing up. I started doing more digging and apparently that bit often breaks off. I'm on the third Oster only because it was given to me used (I really needed a blender and a friend happened to find one at a yardsale). This one, the piece hasn't broken off (I think because it's an older model) but the motor is giving me problems. My MIL has a Kitchen Aid blender and I absolutely LOVE it. I got to borrow it for a month (in between the first & second Oster, would have bought one but the Oster was on sale so hubby went with it) and it was awesome. It handled everything with ease and I like that the blade is built into the base of the jar. No more slicing fingers on the blades because the husband wasn't thinking and placed it in the drawers instead of back on the jar, etc. I can't wait until we get our taxes back because a Kitchen Aid is at the top of my list of purchases, right along with my green house and the maintenance for our van. :D
However, if I could get my hands on one of the older models of Oster such as Laurie A. has, I would be ecstatic. They really were work horses then. A lot of things were made better and built to last in that era whereas now it's all disposable and they want you coming back for more; there's no pride in the workmanship anymore.
