RS:
A confession here:
With the exception of vacs - which I have six of and want to downsize - I don't collect vintage like most people. I buy just what I need, same as most people do, but my selections are vintage instead of new. I don't have multiple vintage washers and dryers like my friend Ben; I have the one pair, for actual use.
I also look for vintage that can be repaired if necessary. An Electrolux Model V would be a lovely thing to own, but there are no spares available, so I leave such things to the real collectors. More recent Luxes have plenty of spares around if one knows where to look.
I'm sorry to hear that Britain has also succumbed to the "new is good" virus that has gripped America for so long now. I know American ex-soldiers who served in your country during WWII and afterwards, and they still speak admiringly of British fortitude in the face of war, bombing and rationing that seemed as if it would never end (in case any Americans here don't know, British wartime rationing continued on certain items until 1954, and gasoline was rationed all over again for a time in '57, due to the closing of the Suez Canal). Britons were famous for making do on very little.
