Kim - I agree, Kenwood is awesome. I inherited Mum's old Kenwood mixer when I left home, and it was 20 years old then. We only got rid of it as we were worried about the cord.
I also used Mum's old Breville food processor happily until the plastic handle cracked and we couldn't clean it properly.
Will look at both brands, and DH said he'd have a look at ours to see if he can see a problem.