I read negative reviews too about Thermador. I went with Bosch which is the same but has different light colors (Thermador lights are blue on many appliances). I'm pleased with a Bosch wall oven and dishwasher and the price was not bad. There are showrooms throughout the country you can test all the appliances and go to seminars that cook with the Thermador appliances and show you how they fill the dishwashers, etc. One is Murray-Purcell or maybe it's Purcell-Murray near San Francisco and I think there are similar places around the country. A friend went with all Thermador about 4 years ago and is pleased.

First, make sure you buy your appliances before any price increase. Second, it sort of depends on how much you want to pay for installation, knowing that it'll be uninstalled in 6 months or so. Finally, you can't change your mind later even if GW users all decide they hate whatever-you-just-picked-out and next year's model is infinitely superior :) In my case, the range sat in the garage for 5 months because I wasn't desperate to use it and installing it would have meant removal of cabinets below cooktop, aka major demolition. The new fridge was just plugged in (didn't bother with an icemaker hookup) because I was anxious, if not desperate, to get rid of the Reagan era energy hog POS. And the new DW was supposed to sit in the garage, 'til the old DW's leak got out of control...grrr... so both the DW and fridge were test driven.

Wolf for the range - our DF366 is a gem (and, as wekick suggests, the bottom rack is definitely on bearings for Wolf dual fuel models). The 36" oven is a real joy but it takes a long time to warm up (the DF48s you're considering do not have as large an oven cavity - it's effectively back-to back 30" and ~18-20" ovens - so they shouldn't be as "bad" in this dept). We also went with the Miele MasterChef rather than a separate wall oven. It won't be installed until next week so I cannot yet comment on it. We saw this as a good companion to the 36" oven as we can avoid the Wolf's wasteful warm-up times when cooking smaller dishes. Plus, we'll get rid of our MW and clunky toaster oven. As for refrigeration, Subzero does not have the reputation up here (I'm in Ontario) that Thermador or Miele enjoy. We didn't go built-in ('twas a misguided budget-minded decision. don't ask...) but had done some preliminary digging at higher end appliances places before we decided to just go with a 36" CD E'lux. But, before that detour, we were definitely leaning to Miele. So far, it's my only regret - but not a major one.

Most likely the knobs just control electronics anyway, I don't know if any true mechanically controlled ovens exist anymore.