Vintage Consumer Reports: Appliance Woes

Most of you probably find Consumer Reports a pretty serious publication and ConsumerReports.org a fairly staid Web site. Both are certainly great sources of testing-based product reports, compelling investigative features, and expert advice for all aspects of your life. But beyond the entertaining Selling It column, neither the magazine nor the Web site has much of a reputation for humor.

At least that's what I thought. I recently was looking at issues from 1967 and came across the amusing cartoon shown here. We've reported on how appliance makers are shortening their warranties, and everyone's heard of planned obsolescence being a business model of some manufacturers. But I never imagined that these were concerns more than four decades ago. Call me naive, but I believed that companies were somehow more consumer friendly back then. As this cartoon from our March 1967 issue illustrates, that wasn't the case. (Click on the cartoon to enlarge it.)

Obviously appliance longevity and extended warranties remain issues today, and Consumer Reports regularly covers those topics. If you're looking for information on whether you should fix or nix an appliance, read "Repair or Replace It?" (available to subscribers). The article  includes  repair-or-replace timelines for many products, including appliances.

And before you buy an extended warranty for a refrigerator, washing machine, dishwasher, or other appliance, read "Why you don't need an extended warranty," which includes repair rates for a number of 3- to 4-year-old products.—Steven H. Saltzman

Essential information: As I mentioned in this recent post, I'm going to tap into our archives to bring you interesting articles and photographs from over the past 70-plus years. Click on my name above to let me know what interests you.

Comments

[Patricia]

I couldn't disagree more! Although 1967 was around the era when purchased items didn't last long past the warranty expiration, at least you could work with some manufacturers if it wasn't too far past expiration-some would repair or replace the item. This was before outsourcing to overseas labor. The worst you could expect was, perhaps, Made In Japan, and the Japanese products lasted far longer than the overseas-produced items of today.

Things don't last anymore and the manufacturers can't even in many cases get replacement parts, so you, the consumer can forget it. If they can't get parts, you can't either. Now, more than ever, CU should be accepting of, not discouraging extended warranties. I prefer the ones that guarantee replacement, and if the same item is no longer available, a full refund of the original purchase price. That way I'm only out the price of the warranty, but not completely left high and dry. I call it an insurance policy. I'd love to never need to use it, unfortunately, more times than not, I will.

I'm tired of spending my very hard-earned money on things I have to discard a year later because it was cheaply manufactured. We consumers spend too much money on inferior items not to have ourselves a security blanket. I intentionally seek out products made prior to 1980 whenever practical-the older the better in some cases. I may not have a warranty, but odds are the item will still work longer than today's products and if it doesn't, I won't complain.