The Q400's aren't that bad. For short hops around an hour they are acceptable.

I've flown them many times from EWR to RDU (1:20 min) EWR-ROC (1:00) and EWR-DCA (1:00).

But I will concur, their dispatch reliability isn't great. But they are new airplanes, the crews are nice (although English is not the first language of many crews I've had) and the comfort is slightly better than an RJ.

The landing speed is always a little scary. They seem to come in screaming and hit the runway hard. So don't expect soft landings in this plane.

There were also rumors at one point that CO might put First or an E+ equivalent on these planes. That might make this ride even nicer.