I would buy if I needed one and I found one that I was interested in. Warranties are not really that important to me. These days very few manufacturers truly stand behind their products anyway.

I think if you are marginally handy, there are great sites like repair clinic that will walk you through both troubleshooting and parts replacement and you are more likely to have a positive outcome than with a repair person these days anyway, IMO.

I just bought a Kenmore vacuum from Amazon. It was highly rated by Consumer Reports, so I took a chance.

I was seriously considering Kenmore, and would have purchased if they had what I wanted at the price I wanted :). Usually some internet searching, or just looking at the features/design, will reveal the manufacturer of their different appliances. I would read the reviews of similar models labeled under manufacturer's name to get an idea of reliability, features, etc., since many Kenmore products do not have a bunch of reviews compared to other major brands.