Unfortunately, the 80s and 90s were a bad couple decades for domestic Singer machines. After they went plastic, they just went downhill. I made the mistake of junking my mom's old 70s, all metal Kenmore because I knocked it over and the little arm broke off ($300.00 to fabricate a new one as this was pre-easytofindanythingontheweb). Purchased a new plastic Kenmore from Sears that lasted me about a year, then inherited my mom's newer, early 90s Singer when she got sick of it and went Bernina. There was actually a time when I would put the Singer in the shop, sew on the Kenmore til it broke, then traded them out in the shop for service. I eventually broke down and went to the Bernina store. Never had a sewing machine problem since.