To JEDI,
Assuming corkyg is correct and you opt to replace a dying inkjet with another inkjet, then you have to somewhat expect the 2011 inkjet marker is now worse than the 2001 market you had ten years ago. And by in large, the reason can be summed up in one word CHIPPED inkjet Printers that will completely shut down as soon as any cartridge is empty.
But if your inkjet printer usage is similar to mine there are two primary lines of defense to prevent your color inkjet cartridges from going empty prematurely when you mainly print only using text black.
1, The first is obvious, do your research and select inkjet printers that use large individual cartridges. With at least 13 ml of ink in the smallest color cartridges, and at least 25 ml of ink in your text black. I tend to be a Canon printer fan, but only some Canons, Epsons, brother, and HP inkjet printers will meet that criteria. Avoid like the plague any inkjet with tricolor cartridges or certain HP printers that have photo accent colors as small as 3-5 ml of ink in them.
2. And especially if you are like me and boot up the computer and then later shut down the computer and seldom use the printer, then you are a prime candidate for the Lemon Law method of massive inkjet savings. The secret is cut AC power from the inkjet printer so it does not start up every time you boot up your computer, because every time the inkjet starts up it runs a small but ink wasting cleaning cycle from each and every cartridge. On the plus side it helps keep the print head clean, but as long as you do the cleaning cycle only once every 30 days or so, and print something every 45 days or so, I have found my Canon ip4000 does not clog. And on my Canon inkjet there is a on off switch on the printer itself, but some inkjets lack such a on off switch. But in that latter case, its still no problem, just pull the printer plug from the wall switch, or in my case from my surge strip far easier to get at.
For what its worth I use the same strategy on my MFC monochrome laser too, simply because I seldom print with it and don't want to always listen to a power wasting fan.
And lasers never have toner clogging problems.