Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, a note of caution for those who are familiar with this style of KitchenAid mixer - do note that they no longer include the spring on the shaft that holds the mixer attachments. The pictures and manual still show that spring there, but after talking with KitchenAid directly we learned that it is no longer included - they say that the pressure of what's being mixed will hold it on there. In the very short time we used the mixer, we (begrudgingly) had to agree. We thought the elimination of the spring to help hold the attachments was a sign of a cheaper unit. However, it's not the only reason for the bad review. The larger issue was that the speed selector switch had issues. While preparing a batch of a light frosting, we noticed that there wasn't any change in speed between 8 and 10. After using it just a bit, the problem extended to encompass 6 to 8 to 10 - basically, it just ran at 6 for that whole range. Our older KitchenAid (a similar style which was lower power to boot) could whip up frosting without any trouble - our conclusion was that this wasn't a power issue, but a switch issue. We really wanted to like this - but couldn't.