I agree with Evan Price that it's a terrific place to start for sure. But first, to the Ford/Chevy thing. And yes, you hit the nail on the head. Lee is often the red-headed step-child of the industry. Lee always has the lowest price for comparable tools of all the brands. (*NOTE) Lee absolutely uses "inferior" materials wherever they can and this saves costs & lowers the prices. But keep in mind that "inferior" materials will always be so, but in some/many places -- it works JUST FINE and you end up with perfectly well-running tools that give fantastic service. And there are many who simply won't ever be convinced of this and spending even half a minute trying on them is like pushing water uphill.Interesting you mentioned the turret press as a good starter, EP...from my reading I was leaning that way. Is there an acknowledged better brand or is this a Ford vs Chevy thing?
When it comes to a press... Lyman, Redding, RCBS, Hornady and Dillon all make a "better" press than Lee does, but that fact doesn't tell you whether the Lee is "good enough" or if it works or what kind of service it offers or any of that.
My first press was an O-frame Lee, the Challenger in 1989. And I put it through a heap of use until I had kids and I got away from handloading and then a damp basement & mouse infestation attacked it over a period of years. Even through that, I rescued it & cleaned it up and made it functional once again. I don't use it these days, but it's on my bench. I replaced it with a Lee Classic Cast, but this was before the Lee Classic Turret hit the market.
The Classic Turret is, in my hands-on opinion, the very best deal in a press on the market today. It's robust and sturdy as hell and it's design beats every other turret press sold by any other manufacturer simply because of the turret design. With the LCT, replacement turrets costs $10-$15 each and swap in/out of the press in 1.5 seconds. Every other "turret" press on the market by the other manufacturers either uses a gargantuan turret that is non-replaceable or extremely cost prohibitive for multiple turrets, and not easily or quickly swappable. If you buy a LCT, you should get an extra turret for each and every caliber you EVER add and all your dies remain set where you need them and you change calibers in SECONDS. No other press comes near that flexibility except the old-school original Lee Turret Press, which is cheaper, older-tech and not as strong as the LCT.
*NOTE! There is a newish "brand" in this game and it needs to be avoided for all the right reasons. Please do not get sucked in to the yellow painted "SmartReloader" products no matter what you see, read, or how low the price is, no matter WHICH item it is. These are all rip-off products directly from China with many specific rip-off examples found. They reverse engineered known products and copied them exactly (and shoddily) and brought them here for cheap money. Buying any of their crap not only gets you awful products, but it supports outright piracy from the great American companies that developed the gear. Two examples of specifics are one of their presses actually copied a casting flaw in the original Lyman press they copied and the Berry's folks out west watched them directly copy their fine media separator 100% after they managed to get a hold of one from a trade show. In a more perfect world, all of the greatest reloading gear wholesalers and retailers in our hobby would start a full bore SmartReloader embargo. That stuff is WORSE than wasting your money on a bad product... buying any of it supports an activity that willfully harms the industry.