Only found your site a few days ago.
I bought a DC07 in 2004, which was a great machine and I became a Dyson fan. I had an Electrolux upright with a bag and also a cyclone bagless option at the time. It wasn't a bad machine, and I thought it was doing a pretty reasonable job on our carpets - until I got the Dyson.
I vacuumed a 100 sq ft area of carpet with the Electrolux, then did it again with the Dyson.
It looked clean after the first vacuuming, but the Dyson pulled up all this really fine dust which the Electrolux had left behind. Very impressive.
Also impressed with the build quality and some of the engineering, particularly the way the filter housing was held in, and also the removable elbow on the main suction pipe.
Fast forward sixteen years, and I go to buy a new vacuum cleaner, as we had lent/given the DC07 to our daughter.
Expected to buy a Dyson, but the range only had one upright, a lightweight and the build quality was cheap and nasty with a Dyson up market price tag. The battery powered "stick" cleaner was suspect as far as battery life went, and the switch had to be held on while operating it. Also, all the weight is at the top, so you have to hold it up. My wife has minimal upper body strength and wouldn't be able to use it for more than a few minutes. I actually do most of the vacuuming anyway, but I didn't like the quality or the engineering design. So then we looked at a Dyson barrel cleaner, the build quality was sort of ok, but still much inferior to the DC07, also made in China, which isn't flavour of the month in Australia at the moment.
We ended up with a Miele C3 Cat & Dog Powerline. Build quality, really good (German of course), works well, the Miele Turbo Brush is also effective, but it is still a barrel, and I really don't like them.
If I had found your website earlier, I would have gone after a SEBO, I still might, but a recon Dyson DC07 or DC33 might be a reasonable compromise.
Sent Dyson a lengthy email expressing my disappointment, got the usual sorry about that template reply, very disappointing, they have gone down the cheap and nasty road, but the prices are still "Rolls Royce" - excellent marketing, but people will eventually work it out.
Thanks for a great website and all the information, wish I had found it earlier.
Good job guys, well done