Red Follows Black. A Sad But Expected Day.

The formation held upon initial knowledge of the long-anticipated-but-dreaded-nonethesame, retirement:
Of my 3/8" drill.
 
Sad, very sad.
Above we see my Sioux 8000, purchased twenty-years ago last winter - being followed at a respectful distance by its successor.
Regarding the black beauty above, today, its Daddy (I apologize in advance to any FaceBook pet geeks. No disrespect meant), which would be me, noticed a sad wobble in the chuck of his tired old soldier.
In the rear: a veteran but still ready to step into the breach. Thank God!
The Milwaukee was there to fill the gap simply because I bought it to fill-in for the Sioux when,after her initial, six hard years she was laid-up.
At one point prior she spent ten days of an Oregon February, exposed to the elements - and on a plastic-lined table with a raised edge at that. When I got back to the job to recover my submarine, all I did was take apart the two plastic, clamshells that make up the case of it and, after shaking out the water, put both chunks on the dash of the pickup, facing the sun. I drove home with those halves still there and ran the defrost full-blast.
In the morning, a WD-40 shower and some grease in the proper places and she was back in the game.
For several years. Then her switch gave out in the middle of hanging gutters on a job with more money available than time so, I took her to the doctor and told them that, while they're fixing it, they should replace that piece of rebar that Sioux had seen fit to use as a cord.
In the meantime, I bought the only equivalent in town, a Milwaukee that was identical in every respect but for that being-red thing. That and a nice, long, rubber cord.
Anyway, back in the day, the Milwaukee was the same drill as the Sioux.
Now-a-days, looks like their latest offering .

The Sioux 8000's last company ID photo.

just might be shit.
And I don't mean "The shit".
My Milwaukee kicked as much ass as the Sioux had.  It's just that the mechanism was newer and stiffer and... I am crazy.
And it was (Is) red!
Anyway, when the black one was released from the hospital (With an eight-foot rubber cord! installed), I/everyone forgot all about the little red drill 'cause...since she was here first...
The Sioux got the glory and well-deserved it was while the Milwaukee languished.
It was used briefly by a helper who found the drywall screw-gun to be fast and intimidating so rather than using the depth-setting, drywall screw-gun... thing, he used the Milwaukee to gently dimple-in the screws while he was screwing-off drywall.
Anyway, it resulted in a dead switch for the little red guy. Switches seem to be a weak point.
The tool guy said that it and the Sioux are identical - but that Sioux parts cost more.

Now the Milwaukee's back and glad I am of it.
This is the best designed 3/8" VSR drill I've ever used. I love it. and I'd hate to have to get used to something inferior.
In closing, it's worth noting that, although the new Milwaukee version may blow, Sioux still makes theirs and it looks very similar to the old one but I'll bet it's got some gross squishy rubber bits.

But - it's available at a bargain basement price.
Just for yuks, here's the new-and-improved Milwaukee.

Sad.