I haven't had my Bissell Pet vacuume long enough to have an opinon on longevity yet. However so far I always disassemble and wash the parts after every use. I couldn't do that with my old one and I think that contributed to it's lack of suction power.

Although what killed the old one was the wooden roller with the brushes. It just plain wore out. You could actually see where it had been shaving wood off the roller for some time before it finally got loose enough to just not run.

I'll try to remember this thread in a couple years and give a better review on longevity then.