I see people constantly knocking the Purepower - Ok they are cheap and made in China now, but having tried one out, they aint that bad for an £80 budget vac. I will stick my hand up and defend the old timer.

If the Purepower was that naff, how come its been in production virtually unchanged for 16 years now? Surely HooverCandy would not produce something after it was not commercially viable? People must still want them - those that don't want bagless uprights don't exactly have much choice now in the budget area do they if they cant afford a Sebo or Miele bagged upright.

I do think that the Dyson jokes are good though "It creaks as it leaks as it sweeps" lol

I agree that the build quality on the 2013 model is VERY cheap, but I think that HooverCandy are just trying to make people switch over to bagless by only supplying a very dated bagged model, as compared to the Panasonic MCUG522 which although not state of the art is at least a new bagged model. Basically, as most people now want bagless thanks to Mr Dyson, HooverCandy cant be bothered investing in a new bagged upright, so keep on tarting up the Purepower with new colour schemes and ever more powerful motors. One thing I don't like though and am surprised that this was never improved is the foot release knob, which is VERY stiff and hard to press, so I have to wear shoes to do it, otherwise I get an awful clicking sound as the upright body strains the pedal assy. Its easy to see why so many pedal assy's broke. I see also that the original activator brushroll has been replaced by a small diameter one with long bristles, and the edge cleaning tufts have now gone, replaced by simple suction channels. There is no bag check indicator and no autosense options to choose from either. Yes, indeed the Purepower is now very cheaply built, but the price does reflect this, with today's models costing LESS than the equivalent in 1997. But despite this it still gives a good carpet clean and is very easy to push.

The PU2115 (sold by Argos), and my latest buy: