I would like to suggest that the long neck was to compensate for the shorter hose handle, as all other Sensortronic cleaners with none-power hoses had a regular sized neck on the floor tool and a long hose handle. On later cleaners across all ranges where the hose terminated into a looped handle shaped like an iron, the extension tubes were longer than those supplied on cleaners which had the regular long hose handle. Then again, I tell you this, but I must also say that some if not all Powerglide cleaners had a long necked floor tool, despite having a long hose handle too. That was the only other model I can think of which did have such, though.