All my previous gym experiences have been at university gyms, weight sets and ellipticals at various apartment complexes, and at gyms that are associated with an apartment, or with a university and thus provide discounted rates. When Pure Fitness on Baseline kicked the bucket and LA Fitness took over the Pure Fitness enterprise, they allowed Pure Fitness members to continue their memberships at any affiliated LA Fitness location.
Now, honestly speaking, compared to a gym where I was paying 3 times as much in Cleveland for a place that was a lot older, with older equipment and no pool, LA Fitness is quite nice. The locker room is spacious and sparkling clean. Although there is a nice looking sauna in the locker rooms, I haven't really used them since we live in a desert and I don't really need to be any more dried out.
There is a good selection of equipment for cardio and weights for you to choose from, and whenever I've been there at various times and days there hasn't really been much of a wait, if any, to use any machines. The cardio machines have TV integrated on them so you can plug in your earphones and listen to local network channels and a few basic cable channels (Bravo, MSNBC, FOXNews, ESPN, to name a few). I haven't really tried the classes so I can't really comment on their quality.
The one thing that I do miss about previous gyms is that they don't provide towels for you to use during your work out, and they don't provide much in the way of disinfectant to wipe down the equipment after you are done working out on a certain machine. Also, there isn't as much as a personal feel to this gym as in others, so if you know what you're doing and have your routine already down, it works out OK. If you are a neophyte to using weights and proper posture, weight training, or figuring out your cardio routine you will pretty much be on your own unless you request personal training. So, not a perfect gym, but it's better than what I've been used to in the past!