KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-quart Stand Mixer Review

We purchased the KitchenAid 600 series 6-quart stand mixer 9 years ago at a store that was going out of business, so the price was excellent.  We thought that we were making a good purchase that would last us years to come.  My husband is a professional pastry chef and he read several reviews in kitchen magazines that talked about how great the KitchenAid mixer was.  Talk about wrong!  In the first year, KitchenAid had to replace our mixer 3 times!  Everytime, they said that it was an anomoly.  Customer service was great, considering we called them every 3-4 months to tell them that their product broke again.  Finally, we were received a mixer that did not break, but it did have a strange grinding sound when we used it.  It lasted until about 6 months ago (long after the warranty) when it finally won't work at all.  For a machine that is supposed to last at least 25 years, this is a big disappointment.  Since I do a lot of baking, and my husband does a lot of baking for holidays, I needed a replacement machine.  I looked on Ebay for my replacement and specifically looked for an older machine that was built by Hobart (Hobart owned the KitchenAid brand until about 10 years ago).  I now have a 20 year old Hobart 5.5 quart stand mixer that works great.  It is quiet and powerful and I know it will last.  My suggestion - look for a Hobart, KitchenAid uses cheaper parts and their mixers don't last.