I thought it was going to be an excellent purchase when my wife and I went hunting through stores. My mother had the basic one 10 years ago when she would use the hand blender. We purchased ther Multiquick 5 with all the fixings. We did NOT however purchase it from Amazon. I am just stating what occurred this past weekend. We purchased this item and all the extra accessories locally here in Europe on Oct 4th 2011. October 30th 2011 the hand unit broke. Quite a sham if you ask me. I was using the hand device to chop up some cheese, the website clearly says that "hard cheeses" are an easy task. I don't know about you but Swiss cheese isn't that hard (Emmental Cheese). The plastic bushing with the cross that engages all the accesories on the intermediate shaft broke loose. I had the hand device on level three and was pulsing my mixer. to chop in bursts. I took it to the service center today and the gentleman working the counter said exactly what happened before I even had a chance to explain what happen to me and the product. That spoke loudly to me as if to say he has seen this time and time again with this line of products, probably from all the hand blender manufacturers. I was told that it would be serviced for free but if anything occurs again with the hand blender that I would have to pay out of pocket. So is that the gimmick? Break the cheap part, replace it for free so when it fails down the line and the carbon brushes give out or the housing splits I am exaggerating to clarify the circumstances) you are stuck paying the bill of the more expensive parts? I already emailed the technicians. I try to purchase items made in the EU but at this rate, I can spend half the money and buy from China.
Buyer beware on this product. I guess you are only meant to chop lettuce, parsley, maybe some carrots, but don't try to process anything like a cheese in it.