I wish I could afford one right now, but I've just paid some BIG bills, and my savings have taken a huge hit. It will be a LONG time before I can afford anything new - and I may even end up having to sell a few things to get back on track.
I'm not sure about the exact date of when the DC03 was discontinued; I know it seemed to have one of the longest production runs of any Dyson cleaner. It was introduced in 1998, and the last catalogue I have which features it as a current model is an April 2005 issue of the Currys vacuum cleaner brochure, which had the DC03 Absolute.
I know what you mean about the clouding/sandblasting of the Clear Bin. My DC27's already opaque! You'll find that the more powerful a cleaner is, the faster the grit is spiralling down the outer cyclone, so the quicker it'll abrade. You'll notice that most DC01s, for instance, still have reasonably clear bins, since the air moved so much slower through those!
Speaking of the DC27, this info may interest you:
- The increased noise level is partially due to a new motor they're using, made for them by Samsung. They were disappointed by the level of motor failure in some of their machines in around 2003-4, resulting from users failing to maintain filters. The new Samsung motor has been rigorously tested and found to be much more reliable than the Amtek YDK, or the Panasonic motor they've used previously.
- The drop in airwatts, from 280/260 of the last generation of uprights, to 255 with the DC27, is due to widened airducts throughout the machine, which help prevent blockages
- Although the airwatt rating is lower than previous models, pick-up is actually improved, thanks to the tweaks they've given the soleplate, brush-housing, and airduct design system.
- The reason why our DC27 has the clutch system, rather than its own motor, as with the US version, is that during trials, the feedback from the British public overwhelmingly suggests that buyers do not like cleaners which leave tracks in their carpet!! I found that astonishing, but apparently, we're the opposite of the Americans, who want very aggressive uprights.
I'm told that the engineers find it very frustrating, because they'd like to make brush-rolls which are slightly more aggressive, and demonstrably more effective, but the public won't buy them! As I've mentioned before, a huge amount of what Dyson do is dictated by customer feedback and public demand - they make the cleaners that people want to buy.
