Yes, it was just my luck that with the Raytheon Amana, I bought what I think was one of the last machines on the market to provide long agitator strokes (besides SQ which I think is the only make left that still does). I would have been sick to my stomach if I had ended up with some short-stroke Kenmore or Whirly, but I did pay the price in extending my extended warranty over the course of nine years of ownership. Generally, that extra coverage paid for itself and then some almost every year I renewed. When I think of what that washer cost me over a nine-year period, I should have dumped it after the original warranty ran out and bought my Duet pair way earlier. I'd have been money ahead.
Four belts in nine years. A helical Maytag could easily run twice as long and still not need its original belt replaced. And even if it did, it would have been a 5 minute job that didn't require more than a phillips head screwdriver -- to remove the front panel. On the Amana, it was easily a 30 minute job even for an experienced repair tech, and they'd be yanking various mechanical components off just to get at the belt.
And the damned machine couldn't rinse its way out of a paper bag.
Don't even get me started on the POS bucket-of-speed nuts companion dryer.