Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. And from where I'm beholdin' 80s side by side with an E, an AE and a G leaves no doubt in my mind which is the more elegantly shaped overall. Even from the bottom view the 80s are much less fussy in their design execution and rug tuft & tassel-snagging potential...in my humble biased opinion, naturally.
I term the front wheels on an American G as training wheels, since they do have a central swivel caster '5th wheel' mounted behind the axle. So, the G has the stable balanced outward appearance of 4 fixed wheels although the swivel caster lifts them slightly proud of a flat surface. So really, the G's front wheels are simply decorative anti-tip stabilizers.
The Canadian 80s, with their uniquely Canadian horizontal bag placement, surround the caster with a 6" wide cast aluminum anti-tip skidplate 'ski'. The AE has a similar surround plate measuring 5.5" (to match the width of the vertically oriented bag chamber) although it is made of easily cracked plastic. The E has a smaller 2.5" wide aluminum housing supporting its caster (that has a lipped cup to accept the bag door tab) and tips easily 'rounding corners.
While the G wheels can catch on sideways motion both skidplates slide & ride nicely over deeper pile carpet but the central caster on all of them handles the job on smooth floors.
Thus 80 & AE's rounded ski wings corner and swivel more smoothly than a G's decorative front wheels.
Any vacuum can be tipped over if yanked forcefully enough but of course as appreciative collectors we do not yank our treasured objects around, just each other's chains now & then.
Pardon, it was just too good a metaphor (?) to discard...
Dave, 'release the water-filled balloons as they exit the venue'...
