Thinking about getting a welder

I had a flux welder for several yrs. that I used and got decent with it but it did nowhere as good of a job as my buddy could do with his Miller 135 MIG so I broke down and bought a 175 amp (I have 220 in the garage) from Eastwood last summer. It had a lot of real good reviews so I took a chance on it and I have used it a lot in the last 8 months with great success. Sure is nice to be able to weld 3/8 on a single pass and if you turn it down it'll weld body panels great. Price was hard to beat too at $500 shipped. And it came with a spool gun for aluminum welding. I don't have the right gas for it so I haven't gave it a shot yet but will sometime in the near future. In the end my suggestion is no matter what brand you buy get a MIG welder. Little buzz box flux core welders are ok for something to carry to the pits for quick repairs but for great clean, strong welds it's hard to beat shielded gas welding.