I'm certainly not in the market to be buying an airplane but if I were about to buy a single engine airplane I would probably get a C-210.
I've only got about 300 hours in them but the one I flew was certified for flight into icing conditions, had a radar and my boss said it was worth about $180,000. It trued out around 180 kts and I had a blast flying it! It seems to me if you're going to use an airplane for anything other than training I'd stay away from the 172's and get something a little bigger and faster, even a C182RG would be good.
I think the Cirrus are probably good airplanes although I've never flown one. I don't know why people are worried about spinning them. If you're not training in them why worry about it. I've never once spun an airplane unintentionally and if I did accidently spin a Cirrus and couldn't get out, then I would have no problem pulling the ripcord (or whatever they call it).
