Really good ellipticals are astoundingly expensive, $3000+. Lesser quality is fine for most people who are only going to put a few hundred miles a year on it. When shopping I decided I would settle for a cheaper one, and bought a Schwinn from Amazon for $999. It's fine for me as I only use it when weather has been bad for a long streak. It's a pretty good machine, but I had to return 3 of them because they started making noise right away. They use a freight shipper that is a pain to deal with, they send the truck with only one person on it so I had to help him bring it in.