Basically every other batch for me is a lager. Now, that my basement is to cold for ales, I only do lagers.
I have been satisfied with most of them, but don't often get a chance to do a side-by-side to a good commercial example. To this point I'm not completely satisfied with the outcome. I think my process is alright and that I have to work on subtleties like smoothness of the bitterness and hop flavor/aroma. The latter doesn't seem to carry over into the finished beer like it does for my ales.
One thing that I have found very useful when brewing lagers is the idea of the
forced ferment test. It takes the guesswork out of determining if a sweet beer is the result of an incomplete fermentation or dextrines left by the mashing process. At this point I wouldn't brew w/o this test, but it's not widely used in the home brewing community and many brewers turn out fine beers w/o it.
If you are really going down the path of making lagers and want to perfect them you will have to invest in temperature control of the fermentation.
Kai