It only needed a new spider. Very easy to fix. washers are repairable, don't be fooled by the obsolescent business.
Lots of spares available on line.
The problem with online parts is unless it IS from a reputable and long standing supplier (and NO, that doesn't include ebay - the actual firm selling it to you) then it can be 100 guaranteed to be a genuine part, whether an OEM one or a decent pattern part.
The other problem, as I found when my 15yo NEFF electric oven broke is that it's the diagnostic and repair cost that often is the bit that puts people off: £75 just to check what went wrong, which could've been just an element (the internal fuse would also need replacing) at about £30 for a generic part from the local repair shop (who seem reputable), quite a bit more so if I wanted a NEFF OEM part, but it might've been the PCB that had gone (I saw a flash through the control panel screen when it broke, so this might be a reasonable cause), which would be £130 + fitting costs: all inclusive it could've been anywhere from £150 - near £300 to fix it, on an oven that was near the end of its useful life anyway.
Way too much for something that old that might only last another few years if I was lucky. As such, I bought a replacement Bosch unit with more features (self cleaning) from John Lewis that was on sale (end of line product) for £530 incl. delivery, fitting and taking the broken unit away.
I've had similar experiences with my old mini hifi - it's the hourly labour costs and that you have to pay quite a bit up-front for an inspection, after which they may tell you that a part isn't manufactured any more or they can only source an original for an extortionate cost or a cheapo knock-off that won't last more than a few years at best.
Almost everything technological these days has planned obsolecence built into it, deliberately jacking the price of parts up and making it nigh on impossible to replace many components without replacing whole swathes of equipement at a cost that isn't economic.
That's why most repair shops have closed down - when my old hifi went wrong, I had to take it all the way into London and leave it there for a MONTH once they had determined it was fixable and a part was available. The repair lasted another 2 years, cost me £100 (this was 12 years ago) including the rail fare, so now probably would cost around £150. Just to replace a defective motor the size of a sugar cube.
As long as the equipment works reasonably well in normal operation, then I'll only look at equipment and makes that are all about engineering quality and reliability. Expensive also doesn't equal engineering quality, as we see in cars.
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