Product review (2 stars): Extreme disappointment
When the 15-yr old Magic Chef dishwasher (that came with the house when we bought it) died a few weeks ago, it was a welcome change to my kitchen.  I had very low demands of a new machine:  Clean my dishes the first time around.  So when I sent my research-addicted husband on the mission to simply find a new machine, he had a relatively easy task.  He was so excited with this Bosch.  I want so badly to love it, but after 2 weeks I truly can't stand it.  It makes me angry every time I open it.  What a waste of money, even my husband is let down.  We actually called the store today to find out what we have to do to return it.  It is not completely without merit, which is why I gave it a two instead of a one.  To be fair, here are the pro's, minor irritants, and finally con's of this machine.

Pro's:
- SUPER QUIET, I mean REALLY quiet.  I don't even know it's running half the time, that's how quiet it is.
- Sleek design.  The control panel is up top and literally hides under the kitchen counter when the door is shut.  Not only is this asthetically pleasing, it prevents my toddler from turning the machine on at random.
- Stainless steel tub inside.
- When we called customer service, they answered quickly, and the representative was polite, professional and very helpful even though we told her we were returning the machine.

Minor issues (these are things I didn't necessarily find as "deal-breakers" and could have learned to live with if they were the only issues):
- Physical design.  We happen to have an electrical outlet to the right of where the dishwasher goes.  This was not an issue for the last machine, but apparently the external physical design of this one is bigger on the right side, so it interferes with the junction box under the counter.  To install this machine, we had to physically jam it over to the far left, leaving an uneven gapping crack (about 3/4") to the right of the machine.  If we were keeping it, we'd have to buy a piece of wood or something, stain it to match our cabinets and somehow jerry-rig (sp) it up to hide the hole.
- The alert chime.  OMG- HOW ANNOYING.  Whenever the machine finishes a load, there's an extremely annoying "ding" that goes off every few minutes until you open the machine.  Drives me NUTS.
- Drying power.  This is something we read in other reviews, that is not too important to me personally, but may be for others:  The machine does not dry the dishes all well.  There's always some water sitting on something, even though we use the recommended Jet Dry.  For me, this is not a big deal (I just keep a towel in one hand when I'm unloading the dishes), I'm more concerned about the dishes getting clean than dry, but for the price of this machine, I can see where it would bother some people.
- Spots.  Even though we use a full resevoir of Jet Dry (as recommended by Bosch) I still find spots on my glasses and utensils.  I know this is not meant to indicate the dishes are not clean, but I've never had this problem before and I end up rewashing the glasses and utensils by hand to get rid of them.....kind of defeats the point of having a dishwasher.

Con's (these are the reasons we just have to return this dreadful machine):
- The size of the baskets are ridiculously small.  I'm not talking about the silverware basket, I'm talking about the baskets where you put your dishes.  None of the dimensions given on any dishwashers address the INSIDE size of the baskets, so we assumed they were all about the same if they indicate the same number of place settings.  NOT SO!  The top rack of this machine is a full 2 inches shorter (front to back) than our old cheapy machine, measuring in at about 18".  Our old machine was about 20", and for a more current point of reference, we went to Home Depot today and measured various other brands (GE, LG...whatever they had on display that advertised 14 place settings or less.)  Across the board they ranged from 20 - 23".  Now, 2" may not sound like a lot, but when it's across 20" of width, trust me, it's a HUGE difference.  When you start comparing to the 23" machines, you're talking almost half a foot of difference across 20"!  I don't remember the exact measurements of the bottom racks but generally speaking, they were all ABOUT 2"+ larger than this Bosch, across the 20".
- The design of the prongs is not condusive to a household that has different sized cups, glassware, plates, bowls etc.  Perhaps if we only used the same dishware for all our purposes this would not be a problem, but we have toddler plates, sippy cups, water glasses, coffee mugs (not just the ones that came with our dishware, but ones we've collected as gifts and from vacation, so different sizes), travel mugs....you get the idea.  Basically the top shelf fills up in half a day because you can't stack the different sizes next to each other.  They hang half in one row, half in another, or the glasses knock into each other and break. Basically after 4 coffe mugs, 3 water glasses, a few sippy cups, and 2 bowls the top rack is full.  Now, some of the prongs fold down which sounds good in theory, but in practicality all this does is create a "hole" that disallows any stacking, so you basically get stuck with less room for any bowls or kiddie plates, and still no more room for the glasses or mugs that don't fit into the end rows.  VERY FRUSTRATING.
- The bottom rack loading design has 3 sets of prong settings:  2 run perpendicular to the front of the machine, 1 runs parrallel.  So, not only does this significantly limit my ability to stack different sized plates and bowls, it only takes one medium-sized pot or mixing bowl, or worse yet, one pot or pan with a long handle, and half the basket space is used (no exaggeration.)  You end up unable to add any dishes to the perpendicular row where the pot handle falls over, and the parrallel row (which runs in the back of the machine) is half used just by the way you have to jiggle the pot in between the prongs.  Basically you have one perpenicular row to choose from, and that will only hold a few plates, no bowls or cups or anything like that.
- Dirty dishes.  Because I inevitably have to overlap dishes of different sizes, I end up with remnants of cereal or mustard or other grossness on my bowls or plates b/c they end up partially covered by other dishes.  DISGUSTING.

So, in short, I think Bosch is a fine company and if they had a more reasonable INTERNAL size and design, I would consider purchasing another.  However, given the significantly smaller size of the baskets, and the poor design of the prongs, I end up washing all my pots and pans by hand, and some of my dishes, glasses and utensils end up having to be re-washed by hand b/c of spots and caked food that was missed as a result of poor stacking capability.  It kind of defeats the purpose of having a dishwasher.  What's just as bad is that we went from a household that used to run the dishwasher 2-3x a week, to a home where we have to run it no less than once a day because either 1) the top shelf is full and we have glasses and mugs stacking up in the sink, even though the bottom shelf is still mostly empty or 2) we have one large mixing bowl, or something with a long handle in the bottom shelf and can't fit any additional dishes, so we we have wash what's there, in order to make room for the rest of the breakfast or dinner dishes. There is absolutely no way I'd be able to keep up with a holiday dinner using this machine.  Normally I can stack the dishwasher, enjoy my company while it runs, unload it, and run it a second time while they're still there, and at the end of the day all my cookware and dishes are clean.  With this machine, there is no way I could ever to this.  I'd end up tied to the kitchen sink like my mom used to be, and that's just no way to enjoy a holiday with family and friends.

I don't know what make or model we'll try next, but at least we know what to avoid.

*****Update- Someone pointed out another reviewer's immature analysis of the above, so to clarify, we did "do our homework" and "read....the.....manual."  In fact, for the week we had this machine, we left the user guide on top of the counter above the machine opened to the pages that suggest different ways to load the machine, in the hopes we would learn to love it.  It just didn't work for us.  To suggest that we should only use the machine to wash plates, is just silly.  By definition, "dishes" include anything used to cook or serve food.  As for the junction box, we certainly do not expect every manufacturer to anticipate our kitchen's design...again, just a silly comment to make.  But with over 300 million people in the US today, I'm pretty sure we may not be the only ones with a junction box or something else that sits next to where the dishwasher goes.  Since this is MY review, explaining MY experience, I've shared all the information I FELT was relevant to justify MY rating.  Last time I checked, that was the whole point of writing reviews....to express PERSONAL and ACTUAL experience, not to state what someone else's experience SHOULD have been.  For those curious, we ended up buying KitchenAid model KUDS30IXWH7, and we LOVE it. It was comparable in price and volume (I think it's reported as 1 or 2 decibels higher than the Bosch, which to me is hardly audible- I still can barely hear when the machine is running, which I love especially when company is over and we're having conversation.)  We did not have any issues with the junction box next to the machine- it fit perfectly under our counter without any gaps, the inside is stainless steel, and the basins are HUGE.  The prongs are set up in a way where I can fit all my dishes and pots and pans, casserole plates, kids plates, various cups, mugs, glassware and sippy cups and bottles, without any special organization or plan.  The best part is, everything comes out sparkling clean (and dry) the FIRST time.  No re-washing required.  It is also energy star rated (but I don't remember the number exactly), however, with this machine, we only need to run it once every 2-3 days because it is very spacious, so I feel like we're saving both on water and electricity.  I will admit it is not as sleek-looking as the Bosch, and I miss the buttons on the Bosch that hide under the counter and don't accidentally get pressed by little toddler hands, but the Kitchenaid has a "lock" option which we use, and we also have a switch that allows us to shut off power to the dishwasher when we're not using it, so it's not a huge concern.  In the end, we are thrilled with our washer (which we've had for a couple years now.)  As I stated before, Bosch is an excellent company- their customer service was great, even when they knew we were returning the device.  This particular model simply did not meet the needs of our busy family.