I kind of go "budget" or "expensive" with my guns. I have several Sigs, a couple of old S&W's, and several others that don't come cheap, but there is something about finding cheap guns that really work that is just kind of fun.
I have 3 Taurus PT111 G2's. Great little cheap gun that I have modded, well, 2 of them anyway, and not afraid of ruining the value of them.
The SAR K2P 9mm is a great gun, and it's successor, the SAR CM9 Gen 2 is even better, IMHO. My CM9 is my house gun, with an added laser/light, it's hard to miss with it. Both of these have many rounds through them without a hitch.
The Canik TP9v2 is a great gun, if you like striker semiautos. I'm going to keep it, but I won't be buying any more striker guns.
I have a bunch of Israeli surplus guns, including:
S&W 6906
Beretta 84 and 85
3 Tanfoglio 9mm, one compact, the other FS, all are great shooters and less than $300 each.
Jericho 941, $299, in good mechanical, but not so great appearance shape, good shooter.
Other PD trade ins:
S&W 5906
S&W 4506
Star Model 28
The only thing I did on each of them was clean them up and in almost every case, put a new recoil spring in.
Even the worst of these, the Jericho, seems to be 100% reliable. I haven't found the capured recoil spring replacement for it yet, but it shot fine.