I have had cheap/medium spec printers from Lexmark - crap threw it out the bedroom window into the garden. Epson printer which started off well but failed to deliver, very expensive inks, that routinely clogged up. Many have complained about how quickly Epson printers drink the inks.
I now have a Canon MP640 printer, scanner, copier thang. It's good. I'm pleased with it. It won a magazine printer supertest in Practical Photographer or such similar last year and also has many excellent reviews with hardly any negative feedback on Amazon, from whom I bought it (25% off £150mrp). As always the ink cartridges could last longer, but you get a fair amount out of them before they run low. The results are very impressive - colour prints. Documents are printed faultlessly. I've not tried printing B&W images although I should as I have a few images that have defied manual printing dodging and burning to my satisfaction. Canon inks are a bit cheaper than others but again not mega cheap if replacing all of them; 2 blacks, cyan, magenta and yellow. I would love the Pixma 9500 A3 printer but it's a bit beyond my means at the moment at £530.00.
HTH.