I was referring to the Electrolux Intensity in my post not the Miele Art series. I was never impressed with the Miele Art. My feeling is that Miele was capitalizing on a market of baby boomers in the early 2000's who had more money than sense. These were the target market buyers of these lightweight uprights for small living quarters [recall the artzy fartzy designs and colors]. When the tech sector went bust in the USA, and the baby boomers found themselves with 1/10 of the wealth they had once amassed, the Art series died. Along with the teckies who never recovered their money status either. Soon to follow was the home market. Once an American dream, the truth of the bust of 2008 in the USA is that home ownership is no longer an American dream and status symbol of working Americans. Most Americans from now out will be renters not buyers. Not a bad thing. THis was the norm in the US prior to WW11.
Carmine D.
Apologies there!
Actually its in the U.S that the Miele D'Art is still available amongst few countries where it is still popular. I don't find it a bad idea particularly when it copied a rare and small company called Princess, who in the 1980's sold catalogue only electric mains powered sweepers. The difference is that Miele made the mistake of producing suction only floor heads and poor motor power coupled with a clogging design. My grandmother had two of the electric sweepers and they were brilliant and yet simple in their design; a motor driven brush roll depositing light dust into a cloth bag that could be emptied, washed completely or damp cloth washable and then just replaced back into the machine. To activate it, you had to stand on a plastic pedal that pushed down on a coil within the base of the handle. My grandmother used her walking stick to get it going but she could successfully lift it up on a table (only weighed around 2kg) to open the hood when getting to the bag. I wish I could find a picture on the internet to show you this sweeper, I believe in the UK it would certainly still make an impact on sales following the poor reliability of battery cordless types.
This message was modified Apr 9, 2010 by vacmanuk
