Sean, I remember those energy star direct drives. The machines would literally fill just a few holes above the bottom of the wash basket and then proceed to agitate on high. The greatest damage was done to people's clothing. Whirlpool could have simply added a few spray rinses where the rinse increments would be with the cycle labelled as normal eco "do not use fabric softener" just as Speed Queen did. Nobody would have noticed. Whirlpool has access to timers that can perform an identical sub-interval sequence across several increments low cost. Instead they choose the more expensive, complex method of stretching and tearing customer clothing while leaving detergent all over them. Its like these companies are wittingly trying to get a rise out of people just so they'll blindly accept FL washers.

Whirlpool officially came to and when they ceased production of their direct drives. 

Whirlpool should have not discontinued the direct drives. It was the end of an era, the last good yet economical top-loader ever produced stripped from the market. Everybody loved their DDs. They should and could have re-tooled keeping the DD lineup in production for another 30 years. With cool washing and spray rinsing energy regulations would have been satisfied as well. Taking away DDs left consumers with either buying short lived failure prone junk or having to spend near $1,500 on a Speed Queen that does the exact same thing as direct drive does that costs half as much to build. There are no longer any middle of the road, level headed, common sense offerings. Consumers only have extremes to choose from.