I guess I should have been more clear. Gaggenau's huge increase was announced in Q4 of 2008, not "last" year. Still was bad timing in light of last year's "crisis" but they are still around and aren't going anywhere or announced any plans to lower their pricing structure. Like I said or alluded to before - not everyone is a customer. I think you are just wrong about these co.s taking advantage of people. No on is coercing you into that Wolf DF range or Gaggenau steam oven, heck neither are anywhere close to necessities. Feel a range is a necessity and don't like that you can't get a "deal" on a Wolf ect? You easily have 2 dozen choices of manufacturers of ranges across lots of price points and they don't have UMRP so the dealers' can charge you whatever the feel like. It's not like 70's-80's Russia where G.U.M's appliance department had 5 ovens in total in the department. They were all the same, including the one in there for service, and the price was not negotiable, you want it? It's an arm and a leg and a wheelborrow full of rubles too. It's not taking advantage of people if you are meeting a need. Should Rolls stop selling or lower prices cars because all American's can't afford one or the economy is in the crapper? Their sales and profits are up. Re: Chrysler. You can bet Nardelli didn't/doesn't want them outa business, the lynchpin in that scenario is that the union has a contract which represents the the bulk of trouble and are unwilling to give in order to make that entity work lest it have severe ramification on the other two's worker bees paychecks. Part of capitalism is rooted in "taking advantage" of the situation. There's a diff. between that and really sticking to somebody though. A high price to change a faucet is not unethical, charging twice your normal high rate to change it because that faucet is spraying water all over the place right now and there's not a plumber around for 50 miles is something different. Marcolo - no, contractors are no more in or outa touch with reality than are doctors, lawyers, dentists, accountants, auto mechanics, bankers, airline pilots or other service providers. Have any of those lowered their fees as a group? Heck no, I'm sure a few have, just like there are some that raised their fees also. Their "potential" customers are the same workers whose paychecks you say are being cut, reduced or eliminated and are being chased by contractors. Also, not everyone's loosing ground , some are rising just as in the go go days we had people loosing hours and jobs.

I have both. I am in the middle of completing my kitchen install so can't fully comment on service. But.... I did have a broken right rear wheel on my new Miele fridge. I am in NJ and so is Miele's HQ in the US. Got an appt a few days later and they switched the part out. They also set my fridge in place and leveled it out. They would have installed the panel and finished the install if the panel was assembled. ll for no charge. They also saw I had their DW as well and gave me install tips, operating instructions and pointers so I have nothing but great things to say so far. I have had others on the forums who have had issues in certain areas due to limited techs or service People knowledgable. I have the Wolf DO and have a question to ask their service people since I am not sure if something is normal or not during pre-heat. So can only comment on that side if there was an issue that requires service

So...I didn't really consider the speed ovens until they were brought up recently on the thread. Now that I've looked at them, aside from the increased cost and loss of a turntable, are there any downsides to swapping the Miele microwave with a Miele speed oven? It looks like the footprint is identical, which would be my primary concern with this change. I didn't really set out to get three ovens, but given that I really want the standard convection oven, the combi-steam oven, and a microwave, it seems like it's worth considering this change. Given the desire for fast reheating, etc with wife and kids, having a microwave is necessary. Also, is it still advisable to keep the warming drawer? From what I've read, some have suggested the the speed oven and/or steam oven can replace a warming drawer, but @pillog's thoughts on this post have convinced me that I'm not completely insane for wanting to keep this in the layout. (Biasing towards Thanksgiving/large group cooking as opposed to everyday needs.) The layout would be: Main stack: convection oven (bottom); warming drawer (middle); speed oven/microwave (mainly due to the fact that the XXL Miele CSO won't trim match with the 30" convection oven but the microwave will: post and post) Separate stack (opposite side, beneath counter): CSO Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this design, it's been really helpful. -joe

I was set on choosing the cash given the solid reliability of the brand I had read about but when my brand new Wolf speed oven was installed this week and did not work from day 1 due to a faulty electrical panel I’m going with the warranty. Just the sub zero fridge install was over $500 so I would imagine just 1 or 2 repairs among the 4 appliances would far exceed 1K. The quality of appliances seems to be going downhill but at least my interactions with wolf / sub zero customer service has been very positive so I feel like the problems will be readily fixed.