Maytag automatics gained their reputation based on the performance of the conventional washers. The automatics had many drawbacks, like small capacity and poor circulation because of poor agitator design for the narrow tub, but someone at Consumer Reports boosted them in spite of all evidence, even going so far during the capacity wars of the 60s as to claim that the Maytag was not overloaded with a 12 pound load while the Kenmore was.  They were dependable and cleaned well if you bleached whites, but they were hard on fabrics and people who replaced Maytags with Whirlpool-made machines noticed better cleaning and rinsing along with better lint filtering.