SaraSimm, I am also fairly new at just under a year of sewing anything with a sewing machine. I did a lot of asking here on the Forums.
I read a lot of reviews online, but I learned a lot more by reading reviews and ratings on Amazon. I found that I should take some of these online reviews, like the top 10 of this or that with a grain of salt. Amazon reviews are actually from the users.
As to easily repaired, that all depends on just what you are going to do. Are you going to repair the machine yourself? If so, I have found lots of how to's on YouTube, but I can's say that all machines will have such.
If you are going to take the machine to a shop, it all depends on the availability of a repair shop near you. For myself, I will have to go about 75 miles one way to the nearest reputable repair shop. There are lots of repair shops, but sometimes they are not all the best when it comes to your machine. Take the time to find one that can service your brand machine, and one that has good ratings.
In other words, you have to do a lot of research for just about anything before you leap right in. Sorry, but this is the best I can give you for your questions. Again, all that said, Singer and Brother have generally, always gotten good ratings, though those can vary from model to model.