Well for starters, the white star isn't 12 years old. It's closer to 20. It would have been discontinued sometime in the 2000s. In fact, you could ask for a picture of the model number sticker underneath and it should have the year of manufacture on it.
The white star, while a great vacuum in itself, is suction only. It only came with an air driven brush head originally, and wouldn't be a good choice for medium and deeper carpet piles. Unless somebody has added the electric hose and electric power nozzle, it might not be suitable for some of the homes you clean.
And $250 is steep. Maybe with this information you could talk them down some.
Any miele or sebo cylinder would be a great choice. Either can be optioned with a dedicated hard floor brush with no brushbar, no wheels even. And the cylinders themselves have soft rubberized wheels. Best all around option for delicate hard floors.
Sebo or miele if you want something high quality which will actually last 15+ years and be repairable should a part wear out. They have high performance and filtration standards.
The shark is fine for 3 to 5 years with decent performance.
The dyson, being cordless, you should only expect 2-4 years. And it won't have the performance of the others unless used on it's highest but shortest runtime mode.
Kinda comparing apples to oranges here. If you need something immediately the shark is probably ok, but if you want something to last definitley go check out miele and sebo.
db130
