I've also had years and years of bulletproof service from an incredibly cheap Brother laser. (I'm also using an NEC color laser printer which is a Fuji-Xerox in disguise, but at 15% of the price. I run OEM toner cartridges through it just fine. But it's big and I digress.)
If HP's hardware doesn't kill you, its software will. Awful stuff.
You said you don't want multifunction including scanning, etc. If you ever decide you do want to scan, consider something like a Scansnap: ludicrously fast double-sided scanning of bills, business cards, magazines etc. Great stuff.