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One widely heralded example of this is Tait Electronics, another is Fisher & Paykel.

When F&P introduced their "Smart Drive" washing machines some time ago, they were praised as having made a world-leading breakthrough.

Their earlier washing machines, especially the F&P 400, had gained an enviable reputation for performance and reliability so it seemed that replacing a complex arrangement of belts, clutches and mechanical timers with modern electronics would produce a winner.

And indeed, if you'd listened to the company's own PR, which was lapped up by the media, you'd have thought that these machines were just the best thing since sliced bread.

But, never ones to rest on their laurels, F&P have introduced sophisticated electronics into an increasing range of its whiteware and appliances.

Now we have computerised fridges and dish-drawers bearing the F&P brand-name.

But somewhere along the way, F&P's reputation for quality and reliability seems to have come off the rails.

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Perhaps it's the loss of its virtual monopoly on the NZ marketplace, perhaps it's the flood of cheaper imported products with which it must compete, or maybe it's just that the company is too busy focusing on other aspects of its diverse business operations.

Whatever the cause, the result appears to be that the company's products are now plagued by design flaws and, if some users are to believed, a very poor reliability record.

Like many NZers, I had an F&P 400 washing machine which I bought second-hand and which just kept going forever.

When the time came to replace it, I naturally went out and bought a new F&P Smart Drive machine, expecting it to be every bit as reliable.

Alas, this was not to be. Although it worked fine for the first two years, it then developed an increasing array of intermittent faults which eventually resulted in the serviceman telling me "I can fix it for $500 or you can buy a new one with a new warranty for not much more."

I asked him for a break-down of the problem and he pointed to numerous areas where "my model" had design faults that had been subject to upgrades -- albeit not free upgrades. My machine would need new bearings, a new controller board and several other components if it was to be brought back to life.

But it seems that I'm not the only one surprised to learn that F&P's products are perhaps less than perfect.

F&P seem to have followed Sony down the road of rampant featureitis - opting to add bullet-points to the brochure rather than focus on producing long-lived reliable appliances.

There have been a number of issues with their washing machines and we all know about the several dish-draw hassles that have been aired on Fair Go -- but there are also apparently some issues affecting their fridges as well.

A thread (Google's *incomplete* record) currently running on usenet seems to be producing a number of horror-stories in respect to the company's appliances.

These days there's little room for blind patriotism when it comes to making the household budget stretch far enough and it has to be said that some of the cheap imported appliances are very well designed and made. Sure, they may not have the ultra-hi-tech cutting-edge features of the F&P products -- but nobody seems to be complaining about their failure rate.

Are we better off playing to our strengths rather than our weaknesses?

Should we forget all about building fridges, dishwashers and washing machines to focus instead on those areas where we truly excel and where we're not going to be usurped by countries such as China, Indonesia and like?

Or is my experience (and the experience of those involved in the usenet discussion currently raging) atypical? Have we just been unlucky while the vast majority of F&P's customers experience no problems at all with their appliances?

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