Is this a new twist on expiring after warranty is out?

[Yorkie]

Well you have said a lot of this before David about items not being made in the country of origin and I would guess that we all knew that. Gary

I'm not sure that is so - I'd wager that many customers assume that if it has a German name on the badge, not only is it a superior item, it's made in Germany. Less and less likely, and in the case of AEG, definitely not - it's Electrolux by any other name. Rather surreal that German customers buy imported AEG products from who knows where, believing them to have been made in Germany. Vorsprung Dorch Technic? (not). Whatever.

Your good experiences with Bosch are of course no indication that you would have had bad experiences with other makes. We've had Neff for 20 years, which I replaced with Siemens. I have no recent experience of other makes, so I'm not competent to take a view on Hotpoint, Beko et al, but I've no reason to believe that I'd have faired any worse, (apart from the fact that I don't personally use any domestic appliances). Our Siemens washing machine has a ten-year warranty and on the two occasions it's needed attention in the three years we've had it, the Siemens/Bosch/Neff engineer knew what the problem would be and he not only had the part on his van, he had it under his arm when he knocked on the door. (Not psychic - just experienced). Service with a smile!

I rather like the Hyundai advert: 'If you want a car, buy a Hyundai - if you want a badge, join the Boy Scouts'

As to cars, I have a new Skoda Bravia, confident in the knowledge that many of the parts in it are identical to those in more expensive VW and Audi cars. I don't know where it was made and I don't care. In the three months and 3,000 miles I've had it I'm highly chuffed with it in terms of features and benefits, comfort, performance and fuel economy. But I know that those who buy VW and Audi at much higher prices wouldn't want a Skoda parked outside their house, let alone would they buy one. As to how satisfied owners are with the cars they've bought and owned for up to three years, the JD Power survey is instructive. Some of the more popular and highly regarded cars don't live up to their pre-purchase expectations when reality sets in.

We're all like to think we're shrewd and that we make informed buying decisions but we're all victims of what the marketing profession calls 'cognitive dissonance' - we're uncomfortable with the thought that we might just have made the wrong choices, so we seek information to underpin and reinforce our decisions, discounting information that suggests otherwise. Then if we think we've been taken fur a mug, we reach a point at which we become 'I'm nobody's fool' crusaders and run down the outfit that we now feel took us for imbeciles. (Printers come to mind, but let's not go there, said Muggins!)

Pawns in the game - me as much as anyone.

Brand loyalty is money in the bank to brands. (It's why John Lewis have forked out £5 mill on a two-minute Christmas TV ad which has rocketed Lily Allen to #1 in i-tunes downloads).

Nothing will change.

Waffled and dribbled Yorkie.