Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

And I don't mean just Breville, but KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, and all the rest. Plastic gears. Plastic housings. In blenders. Even in mixers. And if it weren't for Amazon reviews, you'd never know. And for a hundred dollars. A HUNDRED DOLLARS! Amazon reviews have become the Consumer Reports of the new millennium. No wonder they're so popular. And manufacturers would be wise to pay attention. For those who are tired of being taken advantage of by companies that have zero respect for their customers, consider what I do. Buy a paint mixing attachment for your electric drill. You can get a good metal one for ten bucks. Attach it and go to town. Metal gears, tons of power, near-infinite speeds, and it will never bog down or break. Granted it sounds a little Tool Time, but it works (where do you suppose they got the idea for immersion blenders in the first place), and if you have a drill that's battery-operated, you don't have to futz around with a cord. With all this Chinese out-sourcing, companies have become incredibly lazy and profit-greedy. When will they go back to making quality products like they did fifty years ago (a KitchenAid mixer I bought in 1970 broke down just last year; a Sunbeam mixer that belonged to my mother in the fifties is still going strong). End of rant.