I'm a frugal person. I just bought a Magic Chef(Maytag) apartment-size gas stove from Sears. I like it real well. It cooks better than its predecessor, and when the top is really messed up, I can take it off, put it in the sink and hose it down. This stove was not on the Sears web site, but the salesman found it in his little brown book. It cost $300 or $400.
It is not electronic, which means we can continue to cook when there's a power outage.
A tip - don't ever clean it with steel wool (SOS or Brillo). It produces a rough surface that food can bake onto.
I am waiting for the Utopian day when stove tops come apart into pieces that fit in the dishwasher.