Is this a very recent U-turn from miele? I'm sure I saw something only in the last couple of years that top tier quality was still their primary business model. As an aside with a point of anecdata, our bosch washing machine which was sold with a 2-year warranty (thoguh actually upgraded to 4 by a special anniversary offer) and bought having just discovered that the entire washing machine industry was turning out minimum warranty-able products including formerly ultra reliable (or at least percieved to be...) Bosch, and it's just about 8 years old, with heavy use and the only maintenance it's needed has been to remove a fiver stuck in its drainage sump... but i guess we've just been lucky and should be preparing for the worst.
They might still be good quality, but from anecdotal evidence, not as good as before.
And most machines probably do work for many years, just not sufficiently enough to offer a longer warranty. Which is fine for most homes, since you're not running a mission critical operation and a few days to pick out a new washer isn't going to kill you. A business that needs machines to work might find it worth shelling out more for a quality product that rarely quits or can be fixed on site.
