I did contact Bosch and ask them about the switch failures that they had on the 1617and they said it was due to sawdust build-up in the switch because it wasn't sealed, and they changed to a sealed design in June of 2005. As long as mine wasn't sitting in a warehouse for 4 yrs, I'm sure I must be getting one with a new switch.

Half of communication is listening. You can't listen with your mouth.