I was given one of the first cuisinarts as a wedding gift 40 years ago and my recent purchase was my third. The reason for the purchase is simple, I make homemade soups for family and friends as Christmas presents and the new dicing mechanism is the best feature yet.  Just the other day I made veggie spaghetti sauce and the dreaded eggplant dicing took no time at all.  I almost felt quilty because I was done with the veggie dicing so quickly. Of course the Cuisinart Elemental 13 makes all my old favorites too, last night we made pesto with basil fresh out of our garden and, as usual, the processor did a perfect job.  This machine does everything my old one did, plus the dicing feature and the small bowl for small jobs. There has been a lot of progress in the last 40 years and Cuisinart has continued to improve and innovate their processors.