Ok a Big Oops this should be 36" and 36" or I will have a really big kitchen sorry for the mistake thought I had corrected it but somehow it didn't post correctly.

Just check out some outlet and dealers who deal with discontinued and floor models. I'm looking at a 36" Bertazzoni range for $3,000, an American Range 36" for $2900, and a 36" 5 burner Bertazzoni for $2400 right now from my distributor's latest notice. These are brand new. If things are dented or have any cosmetic damages, the prices are usually even less. I know I've seen less from my Ferguson distributor but the ranges go super fast, i.e. same day or within a few days so I don't remember prices. These are both good looking and cook well especially the American Range. I haven't checked up on the Wolf or Viking 36 range price as it involves searching through tons of email. I think they will be at just about the high end of your range. Blue Star is the only one that would be outside of your price range. $2500-3500 is not a cheap budget.

kooopons: BlueStar made a bunch of design changes for the currently shipping ranges (RCS V2, RNB V2, and Platinum) that addressed the problems found on some earlier models. These changes include modifications (or completely new design) of: oven door, oven floor, oven walls, convection fan blade, burner mounting rails, igniters, and visible sheet metal parts. They also moved to a new factory in Blandon, PA about a year ago with a bunch of new employees. Notice the lack of BlueStar complaints on GardenWeb in the last year or so.

Oh geeze, here is my anal retentiveness rearing its ugly head again but here we go again. Hang on... Probably due to the terrible review that Consumer Reports gave Bertazzoni years ago on an older model people are shying away from the new model. Does the new model make up for the sins of the last model? So how about this comparison, The Bertazzoni MAST366GASXT vs. the Fisher & Paykel OR36SCG4X1? Off the top, I can get an extra burner with the Bertazzoni. The Fisher & Paykel offers only 5 burners. The Bertazzoni has better btu numbers, going from 750 btu's to 19,000 btu's. Fisher & Paykel goes from 1,000 btu's to 18,000 btu's. One of Bertazzoni's burners goes down to 750 btu's but the rest of their burners have higher btu's. What if you want to simmer more than one sauce at a time? Fisher & Paykel's burners only go down to 1000 btu's but all of their burners go this low. I am not worried about the btu's at the high end but the low end I am worried about. Are Fisher & Paykel's 1000 btu's low enough for a gentle simmer? The Betazzoni doesn't have a storage drawer. The Fisher & Paykel does. The Betazzoni seems to have a thin rubber door seal which can wear out faster than Fisher & Paykel's more robust woven door seal. Also, on the Bertazzoni, I can easily see sauce spilling into those rear air vents at the back of the oven. Is there a way to clean these vents if this happens? The Fisher & Paykel doesn't have this problem. The Bertazzoni has a 11,000 btu infrared gas broiler. Is it similar to the ceramic infrared broiler in the BlueStar Pro range? Though infrared broilers are preferred, is Bertazzoni's 11,000 btu broiler better than Fisher & Paykel's conventional 13,000 btu gas broiler? I finally found a stat that is the same on both ranges. The baking/roasting power on both ranges have a maximum 17,000 btu's. The difference is that Bertazzoni's oven is always on and kept at a constant temperature. I've never cooked with a range like this before and I wonder how much of an advantage it really is over conventional oven that turn on and off to regulate the temperature. Finally, at least of this writing, Fisher & Paykel is offering an extended 5 year warranty on all of their products, unheard of in the industry. Bertazzoni's warranty is the conventional two years so you will have to purchase an additional warranty for peace of mind. There are other questions I have too but this is a start. The problem with appliance dealers, blogs, and reviews is that no one really seems to be a consumer advocate. Has anyone addressed the issues I brought up here? I think potential customers would like to have answers to these questions.