Our previous miter saw was a Chicago Electric, which had the screw-lock break off due to some boards getting set on top of it and then stepped on. That aside, it did have enough play in it that it was hard to get a perfect 45° angle (you know... to miter something).

I wouldn't say it was a "bad" tool, but it wasn't up to snuff for our purposes, which is why the cheapest HF model was not even under consideration.

We had another miter saw whose motor basically ate itself, but I think that was the name brand. In any case, it was clearly time to step it up a notch.