The ST28 is kind of an interesting concept from Haas, I like the A2-8 spindle nose to help support larger work pieces, but a 12" diameter chuck and 4" bar capacity on a lighter frame turning center? It seems a little goofy if you ask me, but I digress as people have been buying them obviously. The NGC is hit or miss, the earlier versions of the NGC were all right, and I think some of the newest software versions are pretty decent as well, but it just depends. The biggest problem with the newer generation Haas lathes is the spindles are extremely loud and obnoxious, much louder than other belt driven machines on the market and machines with integral motors. If you are only doing looser tolerance parts on it, I think the Haas would be a good fit but I would also take a look at other machines in that same class from other manufactures, as what you find may surprise you. Anything from Okuma, Mazak, and some Doosans are going to be pretty solid. You may also have luck looking at something from Hwacheon or Smart Machine Tool, they all have their quirks though. I do not know a lot about the robot packages from Haas, but the integration with the machine directly seems to be a very good option.