Agreed on the French Press. If you can boil water it's as simple to use as a drip machine and makes better coffee. And since the grind is so much coarser than for drip, maybe you'd sacrifice less by buying it ground rather than grinding it yourself each morning, if you don't have a good burr grinder? Just speculation.
If you are the least bit clumsy, consider a stainless steel model. I broke a couple glass carafes in under a year (mornings suck), then had the frail plunger in Bonjour's otherwise "unbreakable" polycarbonate press fall apart after just months. I'm now happy with a Frieling stainless press which is built like a tank and should last damn near forever. Would've been cheaper to spend the $$ for durability upfront. amazon also has a Thermos Nissan model for just $30.
If you insist on a good drip machine, I can vouch that the Zojirushi with thermal carafe does a better job than most, for a lot less than those expensive Technivorms.