Get the Makita and never look back. As others have said, it is a quieter, lighter machine with less vibration. It is much nicer to use than the DeWalts.

My Makita is light but..I grab my Milwakee everytime..It is so much smoother with zero vibration

My Dewalt is really nice and seems bullet proof, however it's heavy as hell...good work out I guess.

Makita 9227C is the lightweight model (6.5 pounds) I purchased. Very easy to use and comfortable. I've had it about 5 years and never had any problems. Although after 8 hours of buffing, it feels like it weighs about 100 pounds!

I have a Makita also. Its about 10 years olds and I've never had a hiccup from it. A friend who owns a body shop had a Makita and a Dewalt and he said the Makita was better.

Makita.

Ive noticed some of the new buffing/finishing compounds want the slower speeds, My Makita only goes down to 1500rpm

By the looks of it Makita 9227CX3 is the most popular unit in this thread. I am in the middle of buffing the bottom side of my boat and the weight factor is a consideration. I'm just viewing two other machines before I buy. They are the Flex L4303 and Metabo PE 12-175 both are german machines and only wiegh in at 4.8 pounds.
Auto Geek.net has the details on the flex. The have two nice machines one is a clone of the Makita the other is tiny, looks like a toy, and my concern is will it be able to handle some serious work, I have no question the Makita will.
There are just too many choices.
Thank you guys for the opinions!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MAKIT...motiveQ5fTools

I have a 35 year old Milwaukee that has seen many many years as a buffer and a low speed grinder. Still works great but the trigger switch has been replaced 3 times.

I've been using an old pneumatic buffer for years. I think it's a snap on... Never had any trouble with it. Plenty of power and virtually infinite speed adjustment. It does go through some air though!