At one time Meguiar's sold two versions of the Porter Cable DA Polisher,
The
G100a was sold into the "Professional" industry and had a one year warranty because it was expected that professionals would be punishing the tool 7 days a week and common sense states it will wear out.
The
G100 was sold into the Consumer market and originally came with a limited lifetime warranty because it was expected that the average Joe Consumer would buff out their car one or two times a year.
One thing I've noticed over the years and actually point out in my how-to book is the evolution of the DA Backing Plate and how we as people tend to push technology to its limit.
One of the reasons there's been an evolution in backing plates is because "people", (that's you and I), tend to push tools, pads, backing plates,
products in general to their limit. When we do this...
things break.
I have early DA Backing Plates in my office and included pictures of them in my book on page 53. Current backing plates are all re-enforced to make them stronger so they can take all the downward pressure being applied to them for hours without breaking. Point being, all DA Polishers are continually being pushed to their limits by people that are trying to remove serious defects without using more powerful direct drive tools like the Flex 3401 or a true rotary buffer and the results from this is the components in these DA Polishers are being pushed to their limit or to their breaking point.
Here's a picture of an early backing plate next to a current backing plate taken from the bottom of page 53 of my how-to book.
It's not really the manufacturer's fault if a mechanical component can only take so much abuse before it fails. Is there room for improvement? Yes and I've been posting for a few years now the Porter Cable is missing the boat by not bringing out a tool that offers the power of the Griot's DA Polisher or even the refinements of the Meguiar's polisher. My guess is Porter Cable is big enough they don't have to care and/or they don't have any ears or eyes on forums like this one.
If Griot's has changed their tool then it's a
cause and effect situation, there was a cause, (people pushing tools to the limit), and the effect is Mark's discussion in this thread.
Keep in mind a more powerful, better built tool can be made but will the market, (that's you), pay the price?
:laughing: