Time to bite the bullet and buy a new machine or fix the old one?

[PentapodMonster]

I have a Janome My Excel 4023. It is a basic sewing machine, and has stood up well to the abuse I have but it through for many years. Many Halloween costumes, renaissance costumes, hems, repairs, and alterations have been made with this dear friend.

However. I am pretty sure it is at least 15 years old. The back stitch no longer works, and just last night I discovered that on the top side the stitch looked great, but the bottom stitch looked very messy. I tried playing with the different stitches and different pieces of scrap fabric to no avail.

My dilema is this: There is a local sewing machine repair shop that will fully service my machine, including fixing the backstitch, cleaning and oiling the inside, re-setting the tension, just basic over all tune up of my machine, for $60. If I invest money into this I would also buy a new manuel (My mother gave me this machine when she stopped sewing - I'm sure I had the manuel at some point but I have no idea where it ended up) for about $10.

My dilema is that a new basic brother machine (CE8080PRW) I've had my eye on is only $150, comes with a 25 year warranty, has way more stitches, etc. I showed my SO's parents how to use theirs, and it really is a nice machine for the price. All the reviews I've read have been good. So while the old machine has been tried and true, fixing it at this point would cost me half of a new machine. I will especially be kicking myself if something else goes wrong in the next few months.

Advice? Had anyone else had particular experiences with either of these machines?

Thanks!

[PentapodMonster]

I didn't get any responses, but I thought I'd update this as it seems a few other people have had the same problem.

I decided to go with a new brother, the one I mentioned in my previous post. I fired it up this morning and started out on lycra with a zig-zag pattern. It was glorious, until I tried to use the backstitch. Every time I pressed the backstitch button, the machine just stopped. Egh.

I'll be calling Brother's customer service tomorrow to try and get it sorted out.

[brc55]

Ok, I dont really know anythin about that machine. I have 12 others though. 2 that I have ,when you go reverse it stops and you have to start it back up with the reverse button than wait til it stops to hit forward again. Good luck, it looks like a good sewin machine.