I thought the Hyundai's parts fit LG, no? ;-)
Geez, I really hate to sponsor some other country's economy, even though I am from Europe. But, it is so hard to deny that our own made American products distributed in the U.S. suck. Whirlpool has had a good reputation in EU for decades, but here is just a piece of unreliable appliance.
But this is much deeper than it appears.
The front loader washers, that became 'a second industrial revolution' during the Clinton's term (people were curious what's spinning in that round window), while the rest of the planet (other than Africa, perhaps) had been enjoying that type for decades! Were we too stupid to get that ‘high tech’ earlier? The answer is 'no', profits from that old fashion vertical drum were much higher, keeping consumers shielded from that other idea was a better financial strategy.
Ford cars are really pretty good an appreciated in EU, but suck here, Chevy is an old and plane car technology symbol in US, but quite accomplished achiever in innovation and styling in EU (Opel).
Korea gets 25 Mb speed on their cell phones, a world GSM cell phone traveler have been using their services around the world, except US and Mexico, while our own citizens need to leave the phones at home (true, some carriers started offering GSM services in last few years, but by far too late!).
Are you getting your 6 Mb throughput yet or ride the DSL 0.5 Mb off your home network for that ‘easy payment of 50 bucks per month’?
Do you see a pattern here?
USA flew people to the moon, creates a mass of top technologies that the planet uses every day. Yet, the US consumers are a second class market that deserves only the highly replenishable cheap goods. What is going on here?
This country has been highjacked by corporate cartels that shielded us, the consumers, from real free market play. They downgraded us to mass consumers of cheap goods that need frequent replacements while the prices continue growing fueling the top exec’s multimillion dollar bonuses. This is no longer a free economy! The same applies to services, health care and more.
Forbes, The Economist and other reputable publications, say that collage education is a loosing money proposition in USA, students loans ruin people today, jobs do not pay that much any longer while the loan shark banks pray on young people offering 12% and higher interest rates. We are screwed and so are our children!
We are in much deeper s..t that media tell us, economy could be fixed, but those mechanisms do not apply to organized corporate crime.
Sorry, this was supposed to be about appliances, but my Whirlpool situation has really pissed me off and reminded me of all that other mess. You were too quick and easy to tell me to dump a 4 year old machine and buy a new one.