The most surprising aspect for me is that the Hitachi, though a Japanese company chose Singapore to produce that vacuum cleaner in - early proof perhaps then a company chose another company for cheaper production costs - though not reflected in the performance and Which's testing.
I also remember the 1993 report well as my father was so impressed with the Vax Powa, this is exactly why we bought it, based on this report - but still had our classic Hoover Junior and later on, an Oreck XL in the home.