Yup. Goofy. Stupid, huh?

In the early 1990's the Ford Taurus was the best selling car around. It was great! I rented the wagon once, and it was beautifully designed, very ergonomic and well proportioned. I got so many compliments on that rental! Around the same time the Lincoln Town Car was a model that had been designed after they got a lot of feedback from limo drivers about what they wanted in a car because so many livery cars and stretch limos were Town Cars. The drivers loved that Town Car. My mother had one too, and she loved hers.

What did Ford do? They made a new Town Car that was everything hateful and the livery services stopped buying them. They started stretching (GM) Suburbans. And Ford changed the Taurus to a really really ugly vehicle with all the design elements based (idiotically) on the ellipse. People bought Chevys and Toyotas.

Problem is, to get a better looking fridge you either have to go high end or bottom of the barrel. How stupid is that!!???!!! A nice squared off box with a nice rounded, metal handle is so much nicer! But curves were declared to be in by the style councils, and plastic costs less to manufacture and ship. So we get ugly.

The Amana gets an extra grand at least for the Viking name plate and plain handles.

Also makes you wonder what would be so difficult about small simple push buttons to control power operated doors. The appliances would look a lot better minus the ugly handles they have now.

I regret not getting a refrig with black handles instead of stainless steel. Nothing gets grosser than stainless steel handles on your refrigerator (especially with young kids around!).

pllog: you might want to look at the Ford Taurus now. DH has a Taurus SHO -- it is humorous how much attention this car gets when you drive down the freeway! (thumbs-up and horn honking!). It's a phenomenal car. You can even have you butt or back Shiatsu massaged while you driving.

Curvy handles on the GE profiles series forced me to buy the GE Cafe Series range, FD refrigerator and Nuke.
I really had issues with the curvy bulbous handles and the eye-shaped glass on the range. I am sure this style looks great in some kitchens... just not mine.

I also question the reasoning behind putting a handle on a dishwasher. I bought a Miele Optima (no handle) but many including GE continue to put handles on some of their lines. They interfere with getting close to the counters and really have no place on a dishwasher.

stir fryi I use Weimans Stainless Steel wipes and they clean up SS very quickly and easily ... including the handles. It 's hard to fault the small ones when they are using the handles and not everywhere else.

Pay more for handles. The cafe and profile are identical...with the exception of handles. And the manufactures know this. Just like CD items charging a grand more. All deliberate...put ugly handles on most items, jack up the price for nice handles on others.

Or do what I did, panel everything, and get jewelry quality appliance handles...

Thanks for the tip on the new Taurus, Stir Fryi! I'll give it a peek.

Tom p pa the Profile is not the same as the Cafe. The Cafe range has square glass in the door as opposed to the Profile glass shaped like an eye. The control panel on the Cafe electric is straighter and has a larger cooking area. The racks inside the cafe can be left in the oven when the self clean is on
They are not the same. They are very similar but if you are going to stare at your appliances every day for many years you had better like the way that they look. As nice as the profile line is the handles and styling of the range just did not work in my kitchen. The Cafe appliances look stunning in my kitchen and I love the retro red GE emblem. The electrolux line is also a very good looking line and had I not read bad things here about their FD refrigerator-- it would have been my first choice.

Is there some way to replace handles on appliances? It would be a great way to tie together appliances from different companies.