I've had an old Weber for 15 years - still works well! However, as it was getting too small for my growing needs and starting to show its age, I "upgraded" to this model.The new one has more bells and whistles - I do love the smoking burner/box combo. The rest of the features are nice too. However, this thing is almost impossible to get to 500 degrees to sear a steak or do some other high-temp cooking! It runs through a tank of propane in just a couple of serious days of cooking and once you're at less than 3/4 tank, don't bother with high heat - it's not there!On the other hand - very few flare-ups and mid/low temp cooking is great.