they are like the old Timex watches...take a licking and keep on ticking...anything that you can service yourself is a GEM...machine repair people are now highly skilled trained Computer geeks, NOT the good old repair people we grew up with. Each machine company trains repair people on THAT brand machine and if a shop is a dealer, say Bernina, then that repair person can ONLY work on that brand of machine..so the rest are left with NO repair person!
Get an old reliable back up and see for yourself!