My only real concern is that independent repairers can't get parts and technical information as easily for the German washing machines. This means its unlikely that you'll find a competent independent repairer. I would advise that if investing in a Miele washing machine, you need to be prepared to use Miele's own engineers or dealers for any future repairs. Miele's engineers don't charge more than many other manufacturers - it's just that independent engineers (if you can find a good one) usually charge a lot less.Of course parts are likely to be expensive too because they are high quality parts though even accounting for the quality it's hard to justify some of the prices of some spare parts, which franky can be astounding (eg. 800 for a motor, 300 for a pump). The idea though is that breakdowns should be far fewer, and overall, over a long period, the cost of owning and maintaining a Miele should be cheaper than buying cheap washing machines. However: Miele currently have really long guarantees that reflect their confidence in the quality - although these guarantees swap and change all the time because Miele use them for promotion instead of price cutting.
Miele washing machines have historically scored very highly on reliability and longevity but don't quite get full marks for ease of repairability. This is because although they are perfectly repairable, and in fact less likely than most to need repairing, because of a lack of good technical information and trade discount on spares to the independent trade most independent repairers don't repair Miele washing machines.
This means most people are likely to be forced into using Miele engineers for any maintenance. On the one hand, with such a high quality product you could argue that a fully trained Miele engineer is best - but not having the option to get your local trusted repairman in (if you have one) is potentially a disadvantage.
In summary, getting a Miele appliance repaired should be a rare requirement but if needed you would be better off calling Miele themselves, which is likely to be more expensive than a local repairman. In a way this is not too dissimilar to using a dealer instead of a local garage with a new car. It's not a problem if you prefer to use dealers anyway.
My advice would be that if investing in a Miele washing machine, you really need to be prepared to use Miele engineers for any future repairs. There is anecdotal evidence that some Miele customers (hopefully a small minority) are scrapping their appliances after a disappointingly short life because they are being quoted extremely high repair prices.
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