Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this vacuum based on the favorable reviews here and from Consumer Reports. When it arrived, I immediately put it together (there is some assembly involved requiring a Philips screwdriver) and then started vacuuming. I was just about beginning to fall in love with the selfpropelling feature and the thorough vacuuming results, when the machine began smoking badly on the left hand side where the wheel sits. Lots of grayish-white smoke and an intense odor of burnt rubber. Needless to say, I immediately reached for the off switch but to my dismay it was just sliding uselessly up or down but didn't turn the unit off. So I had to race to the outlet and physically unplug the cord in order to get the vacuum to stop running. We have already packed it back up, and it is going back tomorrow. I am not saying that this is a bad vacuum. I haven't even had the time to really try it out. But apparently something was very wrong with this unit and since this is the second Hoover dying on us within a relatively short amount of time (the first one lasted for approximately two years and then just stopped picking up anything - not clear as to why), I think my next vacuum will be a Miele. The reliability of the Hoover brand at least for me is simply not there anymore. Lastly: I can confirm what other reviewers have stated here, too: The vacuum arrived only in its retail box, there was no second box around it. The UPS driver carried it to my door as if he had just gotten it off the shelf at WalMart. If that poor packaging had anything to do with it beginning to spew smoke I cannot know. But I do know that the box was already significantly dented when it got here, so please if you consider this vacuum know that this is how they ship it.