So far I am fairly satisfied with this blender. The motor is extremely powerful, and it does a great job on soups, smoothies, anything liquid.
I would have given this item 5 stars, if not for the fact that the ice crushing mode turned out very scary. The first time I used it for this, I put in about 5 cubes directly from my freezer and used the "crush ice" setting. The pulsing movement seemed to be working fine, but, on about the 4th pulse a big chunk of glass blew out of the side of the jar. Some glass stayed inside the jar, and got shredded on the next pulse, before I could shut it off, damaging the blades. I called KitchenAid Canada and told the rep what had happened, and they replaced the jar and the base; the parts arrived in about a week, and I did not have to send back the damaged parts as proof of loss. This is customer service as it should be!
In short, great blender, fantastic customer service, wear safety goggles if crushing ice!