Mosey and Ldy,
I am laughing at your comments! I also had a beloved Cuisinart from the 70's! Several of the blade stems broke and they couldn't be replaced. Then the motor started to smell when I used it a lot. After 30 years of fairly heavy use, I replaced it about 10 years ago. My new one is trickier to clean, but it does do a good job. The things to consider are ease of use, cleaning, various blades, strength of motor. When they first came out, they were expensive! There were lots of imitations, but few were as good as the Cuisinart brand. The blades stayed sharp, even if the stem broke. These machines are still expensive. This is because their motor is strong and the blades are good quality. I can say I've never had the basket/tops of either one break or crack and I've dropped them many times.
You should consider what kind of cooking you do and how many people you cook for or how many parties you give that would require the large basket size. I found it was terrific for making dough, slicing veggies, grating cheese, shredding potatoes and making pastes like hummus or with spices for a marinade. I also used it to grate horseradish a few times! This is a heavy machine and you will use it much more if you keep it on your kitchen counter rather than in a cabinet. Not making pastry dough for tarts, pies, pot pies and similar items, I find I'm using it less. I use my immersion hand blender much more often now. With both machines, I never had a problem shredding cheese. If anything collects on the blade then I just add it to the shredded stuff since this will all melt when heated. Even really hard cheeses shred quickly. The only thing to note is the size of the feed tube because that determines the size of the food item you can process. My first machine had a small tube. The new one's feed tube is twice the size which is very convenient.
These expensive cooks tools are worth every penny of cost because it saves my "wear and tear". It was easy to make a pie crust, chop veggies for a pot of stew or whatever before WB. Now that I am not buying the readymade stuff, I am starting to leave the machine on my kitchen counter again and I use it much more! Cole slaw is a zip! Chopped liver is easy! I shred zucchini and yellow squash for pancakes. You might even want to check out some of the optional blades and attachments. The julienne disc and whisk are very nice to have as are the various size slicing discs. I also have made various nut flours and butters when I can get the nuts cheap enough to bother.
How much easier it is to shop for these things when you can read Amazon reviews!
