What happened to quality?

Dodgy Jugs, Sunbeam left, Russell Hobbs right

In September 2010 I wrote a post about some of my favourite things; at the time one of these was the new Sunbeam Electric Kettle that replaced the dodgy Russell Hobbs Kettle that we persevered with for over a year.

Less than 2 years later the $189 Sunbeam Kettle has crapped itself as well. What price do you have to pay for quality today?

Is there such a thing as quality anymore? We paid top dollar for our European Miele dishwasher, which 4 years down the track is blowing water out its drying vent.

New jug on the block, a Zip - $40 12/07/12

The 500$ Asus netbook I brought from Playtech lasted for 1 month outside of its warranty. Not that Asus is a high end product but you'd still expect more.

The last decent watch I bought lasted a year before the strap broke off. Now I just buy Warehouse watches. These days I think my plan will just be to buy crap stuff. Your expectations are low and you can probably get 3 to 4 "crap" products for the price of one "good" one.

All of my buddies high-end Litespeed road bikes have failed. None of my cheap crappers have.

Unless my Surly Karate Monkey gets run over by a bulldozer I know its still going to be a going concern in 10 years time.