Hi karlori,
As someone else mentioned, an important fact is if you want a tool or a brand. Even if Leicas are considered to last for longer, they give problems too (sometimes, as any brand...) and you may end up paying their high price (if metered or AE) and more money to repair or CLA them once or periodically.
If you want Leica only, as your budget is short for the M7 and lens or lenses, you can pick the M5 or the M6. The M5 has a narrow meter so you can meter a small area and decide your exposure (spot), and you see your speeds in the viewfinder. The M6 has a more normal metering system. The second version M6 can use TTL flash. M6's are around $1000-$1300, and M5's cheaper.
If you want AE, below the M7 ($4000) there are other two levels in price: the Zeiss Ikon (ZI) $1400, and the Voigtländers (Bessas) $500-$700.
I use three bessas daily, and have had no problem at all. All of them mechanical (no AE). If one day I bought a RF with AE, that would be a Bessa no doubt. The same company produces Bessas and ZI's. There's a cheaper ZI without viewfinder, designed to be used with ultrawideangles and external finders.
What's the difference between those three levels? Basically construction and durability, and a few features, but that doesn't mean the ZI's or the Bessas are bad in any way... They're amazing, well constructed, durable and great cameras, and they even have some advantages over the Leicas (lighter, back door easy film loading and others...) About photography, the three of them take the same photographs and you can use the same lenses on any of them. Bessa's are a line designed to offer different tools to the photographer depending on the kind of lenses used. That's what I like about them. The Bessa R4M/R4A can use ultrawide lenses without external finders, something no Leica can do. The R3M/R3A has a real life size vision viewfinder (1:1) for shooting with both eyes opened...
Another thing is AE... Most experienced photographers prefer not to use AE because scene's metering depend on scene's reflected (not real ambient) light, so if you want great exposures, you need to override AE constantly and change the settings offered by your AE camera, so it ends up being the same as using a camera without AE...
Before the precise camera, and before the precise lens or lenses, you should answer two basic questions:
1. Must your camera be a Leica?
2. Must it have AE?
If you don't decide that, this could continue for months...
Cheers,
Juan
