Room for Improvement

We had a long-serving Dyson DC-24 but it died after many years of great service. To try and save money we bought a Vax Air 3 U88 AM-B. It is not a disaster, but in nearly every area it is substantially worse than a Dyson. Its tools are not as easy to use, getting in at bits to clean needs a screwdriver instead of a 50p piece and it just does not do the job as well. The design is basically a copy of a Dyson, but the overall build quality is just a little bit poorer in every area. The real frustration begins when you try to put one of the heads on to clean out the car or whatever. The accessories twist around rather than maintain position, and nothing quite stays on - the heads often fall off. The hose is just too short to be useful, is in the wrong place and has a frustrating clip required to attach anything to it. You also have to disassemble the whole handle. There are no instructions with it so you just have to work it all out. When you use it on a carpet, it leaves stripe marks where it has hoovered, due to the strength of the suction - it is just unnecessarily rough. The final thing that is just so frustrating is the length of the electric cord - it is just a metre or so too short. We have had to cut the plug off and extend the cable - all so unnecessary. Anyway, it does the job, but when we buy another hoover, it will not be a Vax and will almost certainly be a Dyson. It may be £100 more, but frankly it now seems cheap at the price.