We are on our second front loader. Big mistake. The first one came with the house and my daughter overstuffed it all the time till the bearings broke. But we still believed the hype about how well they clean (and it did seem to clean the clothes). However, as others have noted, there's always mold around the lip so we have to keep the door open when not in use. And if there's one thing that bugs me, it's doors left open (even though this is in the basement, out of sight, until I do laundry again).
The water saver feature is not worth it. I like to see and control how much water I use in a load, based on common sense, not on a computer program.
My small independent appliance dealer also said the best machine on the market is the top loading Speed Queen.
Another thing she noted was that people use too much detergent, which turn into too many suds, which the rinse cycle on HE machines does not use enough water for . She said 1/8 of a cup is all you should use on a normal load, 1/4 cup for large. Do not fill to the line on the cap of your detergent--the detergent manufacturers , of course, want you to use more. But the machines won't rinse it out well enough and will leave a smelly residue.