In the good old days, electronics and appliances were made to last......almost forever. Not any more. Now we live in a disposable world where in many cases it's cheaper to replace an item than to repair it.
The good people at Consumer Reports did some research and this is what they came up with:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2011/august/shopping/repair-or-replace-it/overview/index.htm
Read more!