I think that salesman is full of kaka.

Miele and sub zero are both top drawer companies, both in terms of product and service.

I think Miele service is patchy. They seem to be great in some places, and in others people have to fight to get service. That might because of availability of good repair services or issues with the original store or something. Relatives had a real problem with their company installers. Others have had fantastic service from them.

Wolf sent a service man to me for what turned out to be an installation error. He went over the whole unit while he was here. Wolf got their money's worth and I got reassurance. The local SubZero service that has been taking care of all the SZ's in my family is also good, but that's on post-warranty work, with direct contact, rather than through W/SZ. I am in a major urban area, however, so that's not surprising. In more far flung places, where there aren't many to choose from, I don't know if the service would be equally good.

I agree with pllog
Our first DW was destroyed by incompetence - fortunately we did have an extended warranty(which I don't usually purchase) and after investigation, we went with a Miele DW again. The warranty lemon refunded our entire purchase price.
We recently had a service call and they only offer factory service in our area now. The rep was wonderful - told him the problem and he ordered parts in advance and the DW is back working perfectly. He also suggested using the Miele soap bricks - and I tried the samples and was hooked.
Cascade cleaned but the Miele sparkles.

I have had Miele appliances (2 appliances) for the past 10 years. I have had Wolf (also 2 appliances) for the past 8.5 years. I have had to call Miele service one time and they came the next morning and fixed things - it was a dishwasher problem and a plastic screw cover off my kitchen scissors had come off and was clogging the drain. It was not a problem with Miele per se. I have not needed to call Wolf service. I am in the Seattle area if that matters. Provided quality has not deteriorated since I purchased my appliances, you likely will not even need to call for service. These are made to last and I do not believe you can go wrong either way!

While I have had two service calls on my Subzero (I have one that came with the bad batch of copper, and a fan died or something)...the service has been Really good. On one repair they came out the next morning and the other repair was prompt and efficient as well. I have not had a repair to my Miele DW, so I can't comment.

A2gemini: sounds like the service was good.

I will reiterate that both miele and sub zero are the very best of the best.

I can't comment about Miele since I don't have any Miele appliances.

However I can rave about Sub Zero- both in warranty and out. My 501 R and F are now 25 years old. There were several instances over the years where Sub Zero readily offered to sent the part for free and I paid labor. My son managed to break the handle off the frig and when I called Sub Zero's tech line they offered to mail me 2 replacements handles - one to replace the broken handle and another one for the freezer so that they would match. When my DH snapped the corner off the plastic light shield they sent a free one. When my Sub Zero authorized repair tech called them to find out what part he needed for the auto defrost they sent that free too.

So far it seems like Sub/Zero has good reviews.
pllog- you raise a good point in that I do live in a smaller city and service in general will be harder. To give an idea any showroom that i visited was at least an hour away.

rima-wa- looks like you had a good experience with Mile service.

I originally was looking into Gag oven but scratched that idea entirely since there are NO displays in any showroom in my state at all! Imagine servicing something like that.

On a final note Wolf is about to put a Combi Steam/Convection oven on a few of our showrooms here. Since I was initially really interested in this feature maybe I should start looking in thais direction. Still there are features in the Miele oven that I really liked. Plus I think I was going to get a few pieces off the showroom floor and from the Close out section that would have priced out some of these Miele appliances a bit better. Another reason I wanted to make sure Miele service was strong

Do a search at the bottom of the main appliance page for Miele Ovens.

Gary