The ways are the last thing I would worry about. Dealer and service support are one area I would look at. As far as Haas goes I have had very few problems (4th axis encoders
) And Haas does change all the time. You cant compare a machine they built in the 90's to todays. My first two VM were only 6 months apart but they had a ton of changes for the better. But I do things a little different than some shops. If I have a chunk of steel on the table, I wont stick the endmill in quite as far if were alum
Might even slow the feed down a hair.
Gary