So, we finally bought a new vacuum cleaner to replace our beefy, retro upright from the 70's. The Hoover Windtunnel canister vac is mostly made of plastic, but has metal wands that extend easily as well as a reinforced hose. There's a 15" powered carpet head and a mini powered head that both do a pretty good job at edge grooming. The crevice wand stores expediently on top of the canister along with a tiny brush for filter scraping and a bare floor tool.

The Windtunnel has two filters, Hepa and exhaust, which cost about $15 a piece, but there isn't a bag to purchase. Unlike other vacuums, the see-through collector bin has a lid so there's no fear of spilling the diligently removed dust on the way to the garbage. Even when the collector is filled to "max" the power head still seems to grab away at the carpet quite happily when I am using the vac from a central location in the middle of the room. I can also carry the canister easily in one hand and brandish the a wand in the other for crannies. I really like watching the dirt accumulating inside the collector as I mosey around and seeing the carpet turn "bright" again. (Really needed a new vacuum...)

Caveats: The small attachments are really short, maybe only 4" in length. On high settings, the vacuum isn't really "ultra-quiet". The canister itself isn't perfectly sealed at the collector connection. For the most part though, at $169 (from Costco in Sunnyvale) the dust escapees and minor quibbles aren't deal breaking. We live in a small apartment, so the compact size canister set-up, and great suction more than make up for it. Better yet, the vacuum breaks down into separate pieces for storage and can fit under cramped sink or large shelf when space is an issue.