I have an R51 Thinkpad. No complaints and it works great. I bought the 5 year warranty. Based on my experience with prior laptops (Winbook) it's money well spent.

IBM Thinkpads are great machines. I am on my second machine in 4 years. Currently a T42. Very well built, rugged, and reviews are great.
I use mine for business and travel often so it gets used and abused like a Timex.

I thought I loved IBM laptops until I started using Dell. I've had a lot less problems with Dell laptops.

However, the prices between Dell and IBM are similar, and the internal components are just about all the same. I get all my service from my company so I've never had to deal with Dell or IBM, but I hear that Dell is much better with customer service. I would line up two from Dell and IBM and compare what you get as far as upgrades and components.

The old IBM thinkpads are terrific machines. We have owned many of them, with almost never any problems.

I haven't bought anything since Lenovo took over though, so I can't say if anything has changed.

I run a computer service business and repair shop and all of our on site techs all have IBM think pads. We haven't bought anything since Lenovo took over, however. From a repair shop point of view, we receive a lot of Dells, Compaqs, HP's, etc that have physical component issues-not built very durable etc.

If you don't have a high end business deal with Dell though a company, you tend to end up talking 9 out of 10 times it seems to someone in India that can be difficult to understand. We have had tons of customers stop using Dells for this reason. We haven't seen that issue w/ IBM, but again, that is before Lenovo took over.

I go through 1-2 laptops per year for work. I'm pretty hard on 'em. Currently using the T42. It seems fine. The majority of my problems have been due to hard drive failures.