Absalutly agree with you Tim. I had one the same age and only retired it about 5 months ago when the Xtreme came out, I didn't really retire it, gave it to my dad and it's still going strong. Again it gets used regularly but so gets looked after. It was well worth the £400 spent.
Interestingly I've been wfp coming 5 years, in the first 18onths I got thru 1 Universal 1 extel(extender) 1 xtel 1 hxte. After 3 1/2 years the slx25 is still better looking than they were before they gave up.
Simon.