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GE's appliance division has slipped considerably over the past 20 years. Back in the 90's when Maytag was considering purchasing Amana from Raytheon, General Electric was wanting to exit the home appliance business and sell the entire division. Problem was, nobody was willing to pay their price for a part of their business they hadn't spent any real money on in years. Negligence can destroy a business.
After management realized nobody was interested, they started spending money to update the line (and by "update", I mean "cheapen"). Their laundry was the first to be changed, and it was not for the better. While the old design was hopelessly outdated compared to the competition, the new line was plagued with quality issues. We won't even get into what they done to the refrigeration line, but suffice it to say it was the end of the road for what was once a reliable and well-built product.
One of these days, GE is likely to be simply a name and not a manufacturer in the home appliance business. Of course, they sure won't be the first. It has happened to some of the biggest names in the business (Amana, Maytag, Westinghouse, Admiral, to name a few).
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