I heard recently that if you buy Kitchen Aid, buy it directly from them off their website. That in order for them to make a profit on items sold through retailers, the quality for those batches had to be lowered, but the quality of the items through their site was much higher. I cannot say if that is true or not. But I bought a Kitchen Aid directly from them almost 11 years ago and use it multiple times per week. Have barely done any maintenance on it aside from occasional deep cleaning. Still works and looks just like new.