And honestly, as expensive and overbuilt on the outside as many old appliances were, some of their technology wasn't that great. Brushed motors, belted transmissions, and mechanical timer switches were not really that reliable, even if you could throw the thing down a flight of stairs without a scratch. And they were pretty crude in operation. There was no "delicate" cycle on those old machines, heck, they'd shred t-shirts if you looked at them the wrong way.

People really do have rose tinted glasses.