Not all vintage is good.  Not all new is bad.

There are good and bad items in all areas of products.  The manufacturers have been doing the same thing since the beginning of time.  Trying to make the most profit, by building as cheaply as they can and selling as high as they can.   Sometimes the corners they cut turns their perfectly square product into an oval.

I actually think we are the most to blame for the poor, low quality, plastic fantastic vacs of today. There is this mentality that permeates our society...wherein most people that go to buy an appliance like a vac, want a DEAL and want a BARGAIN above all else.....to the point where they are stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. I know people who take items back to the store if they find out someone they know got it cheaper somewhere else.  And these are units that were functioning fine with no complaints.

I always thought if something was worth having, then it was also worth saving for to purchase later. But these days it's mostly instant gratification and instantaneously purchased on the charge card. If you talk to manufacturers, they'll tell you the same thing;that they could make a splendid product as in the days of lore, but they couldn't sell enough of them to make a profit. A higher priced unit compared to a lower quality, similarly functioning unit won't sell to the masses.

And yet you have Miele, Rainbow and Aerus....I have not owned those yet, but I hear favorable things for their price tags. Compared to all the masses of junk vacs sold in the US, I'd have to think some high-end niche marketing is going on.

When I hear about the 'good ol' daze'....I remember racism, bigotry, antisemitism and homophobia. If you were white middle class, went to church regularly and were str8, life could be grand.  To hell(injury or death) with anyone who fell out of those parameters. That's what I remember about the 'good ol' daze'.

Kevin

wouldn't argue that many appliances back in the day were made with superior material & workmanship. But it depends on the appliance company itself where the cut-off date would be(when they started to go downhill). Many would argue that was the Fair Trade Act and the US can't possibly compete with cheap foreign labor......although many of those foreign factories are US owned companies.  Personally, I think the rot had set in before that.

For whatever the debatable reasons, we just lost our manufacturing base here in the US.  I'm not sure it can ever return(President Trump), because you have to pay US factory workers a 'living wage'...not for example, those entry level food service crap salaries. Robotics have replaced hundreds of thousands of auto workers in US plants. It's a whole different landscape now.

What still seems to be working here are 'boutique' companies that can manufacture on a smaller scale for a much higher priced consumer product. With 300 million people to pool from as buyers, niche marketing often wins the race.

Kevin