My wife and I sell them part time, it is one of the few vacuums she can use due to her asthma. There seems to be some regional variations depending on how far the particular distributor is from Michigan. They're about $2500 around here but I've seen them at $2600 and $2700 further south. Inflation adjusting the models you will realize they haven't increased as substantially as you'd think for a high end product. The early models equate to about $1700 in today's dollars. If you ask yourself if it is worth it, working for the local distributor part time you'd be surprised just how many older ones are working unserviced. Unlike some of the fly by night distributors ours is very customer service oriented and does proper on premise service, so you get a good indicator, the number of D4s and D3s out there is substantial though the D4 especially (our local distributor started around 25 years ago and became relatively large, so D4s would be predominate). You figure you are 18 years out on the D4 and they're still running strong, even ones much older than that. Inflation adjusted the price is not that much different than it ever was depending on what you got with it. Rainbow has also put substantial effort into R&D, brushless motor, new aquamate, new powerhead, Rainjet, Super mop etc. They are not just rehashing the same old product. Look at the changes since 1996. I don't personally own the newest (but I've got the newest here for demo purposes if you have any questions), I have an E Series and a D4. The new powerhead is awesome, it grooms very well, and with the sideways edge brushes you'd be hard pressed to find something with better edge cleaning (this is a fairly recent patent, I think it will be 2025 or so before it expires). If you don't store them on basin and follow the basic usage procedure you are pretty safe for probably 30 years. So you are looking at $83 a year, my wife works at Walmart as a dept. manager over the vac dept. Unless you buy something over $100 it usually only lasts a year at best unless you hardly use it. All those $50 specials every 5-6 months add up and they work like crap. She says the same people are back every 3-4 months on the $40 jobs. Gas, time, performance, filters,bags, replacement costs really do add up. It isn't just Rainbow long term you are better off coughing up cash for any better quality vac.
Same goes for the $99 lawnmower people. Every season $99. You can get a commercial mower for $800 that will run 25 years. So you spend $800 up front as opposed to $2500 over the years. You only think you are saving money.
Aside from collectible vacs I haven't bought a vacuum for regular use in years and never even have to think about it.
So if you think Rainbow and Kirby are bad investments, they clean better and provide with reliable service. The same can not be said of lower end throwaway machines.
