I've had my VX-170 for about a year now and it has been a good handheld. I bought it for the price as it was one of the least expensive handheld radios available, but it certainly isn't cheap.
I really like the A/B VFO. Since this is the radio I normally take with me when I go out of town, so it is nice to set up a couple of repeaters w/o putting them in memory.
The squelch setting is in a menu, and I don't like that very much, but its not a deal breaker for me.