I remember a special neighbor lady had bought one of these exact same models in the very early 1970s, and i thought it was the coolest thing in the world,, it sounded like a little model airplane taking off,,,we moved away shortly therafter, and i went back and visited this neighbor over 20 years later,,,,she said that vacuum lasted almost 20 years,,and she had very thick, heavy shag carpet.
Must have worked fine, she was the type of very fussy and persnickety housekeeper where you didnt find a speck of dust in her house.
She also had Central Vac, and just used the Oreck for fast inbetween touchups, so, maybe the Oreck wasnt the best, but did last a long time.