Old Savages are made well, or one of the old Rossi guns seem pretty decent, Norinco doubles are pretty rough, and may take a little "light" gunsmithing to work right. Stoeger seem to be alright out of the box, but prolific shooters seem to wear them out. Yildiz get some good reviews and make higher end stuff as well. Baikal makes a good gun "entry level" and high end. I have a Baikal coach gun with hammers that shoots where it's supposed to and seems very tough.
I like having a hammer gun loaded when hunting or walking in a social setting. So the Baikal would be my first pick, and probably best bargain for a new gun. Second would be a used Rossi hammer gun.
If you don't care for hammers, the Savages are nice, and can be found cheap. I had a couple, but for some reason they beat me up a little more than my Baikal.