maggie, our Miele is the "Prestige Plus 6" (that's what's written on the front anyway) - I did use the Which? site to review our options before buying and it was the second from the top on their list of Best Buys.
It is not the cheapest -- it was just under £700. But we'd lived with a crappy machine for so long, I just wanted a good one for a change, and people say the typical lifespan of a Miele is 20 years so that swung it. If we ever sell this bloody flat we are taking the machine with us, no question!
The swankiest thing about it IMO is that in the first 10 mins of washing a load, it automatically senses how much water the load is absorbing (DP was like "It's alive!") and adjusts the cycle length accordingly. So a cottons wash that would be 2 hours long if machine was full, becomes considerably quicker -- maybe an hour and a quarter or even an hour. There is a little display to tell you how long is left. This is such a treat when I'd been used to a machine that took 2.5 hours to do even a small load of baby essentials. I think it may help keep a lid on energy bills too (hopefully).
Also, it is highly amusing to me that the fastest spin cycle is about 1/4 as loud as the crazy bone-shaking spin on our old machine. It had not even occurred to me that this might be the case -- makes a nice change.
It is a MASSIVELY heavy machine though seems to be solid metal delivery guys were cursing it as we are on the top floor.
Am aware I sound like a Miele advert, sorry, I promise I'm not. Our dryer is a Siemens and I wouldn't change that either