Bobby if you still have the KA classic you were talking about,keep it! Maybe someday you will run across some one that can repair it. Or if it were me I would at least keep the attachments. I had an old (Hobart made) KA that I gave to my niece in South Carolina several years ago. I told her to bring it back on her next trip home. I have a 6 quart pro sitting in my garage colecting dust I will give her in exchange. KA has a great return/repair policy. 9 times out of 10 if someone sends a mixer back for repair it is completly replaced with another mixer. For the person asking about the Hobart N-50 mixer. KA does NOT make them anymore. Kitchen Aid has not made Hobart mixers since the mid 80's. Thats when Dart Kraft bought the KA division from Hobart. Later to be bought out by Whirlpool. Whirlpool now also owns JenAir, and Maytag in addition to KA.

I just bought one from Costco for my wife for Xmas. It is the Professional 550 model with 575 Watts. $50 off from Costco, $30 off from Manufacturers rebate, so final price is $250 plus tax. Plus if anything happens to it can take it right back no questions asked. I bought it before looking at reviews because I always thought the KA mixers were supposed to be good so didn't really think otherwise. The reviews I have seen are "mixed" at best, about 50% love it, about 50% hate it. Seems as though the quality has dropped considerably over the years and might be better off trying to find an old one that is 30-40+ years old that some fool is selling for cheap, probably last longer than a new one.

I love it, but my kitchen is only a few weeks old. I am not a fan of things on the counter. I loathed using the mixer previously because it required lugging it out of a corner cabinet. I looooooove how convenient this set up makes my mixer. It is easy to lift and put back away. The hardware does appear to be very heavy duty and the stability is fine. To use, I pull the front of the board the mixer is sitting on. It lifts up very smoothly and when it is lined up with the counter, it automatically locks into place. I then use the mixer in this position. I never move the mixer itself... To release, there are little levers under the board that I pull forward. Then, I guide the mixer into its resting place (although it would do this itself...) Easy! Does your mixer vibrate so much that it moves on the counter to another place?? Mine doesn't.........

I had the meat grinder but only used it back when I was making baby food for my kids. It's can also be used for making sausage or turning chunks of meat into ground meat, but I never used it for those tasks. The two things I use the slicer grater for are Jewish holiday related: grating potatoes for latkes (potato pancakes) and grating apples and nuts for charoset (a mixture of apples, nuts, wine and spices for Passover). For the first, I only use it if making a bigger batch then will fit in the food processor bowl as the food processor is more convenient. I tend to use the coarser blade for about half and switch to the finer blade for the other half. If it's all done on the coarser blade, it's too chunky for my taste but all on the finer blade doesn't have enough texture.