Centropolis

I am planning to buy a new MD but having doubts.....read on... I've bought a Kenwood DMC-L7R unit about 2 years ago. It was working great for a while. First, I was using it two or three times a week. And then after a year or so, I used it maybe once a week or less. It was one of those things that I bought that I didn't get to use that much......(kind of like my PDA now! haha). I completely stopped using it for a few months. About 6 months ago, I started using it again because I was taking some courses at a university. It worked fine a about two months and then it died on me. I've never dropped it once. I really took care of it and it still looks like a new unit even now. One day, I put in my disc and it says 'Can't Read a' on the display. The motor doesn't move at all to try and read the disc like it suppose to do. I took it to a shop and they said it'll cost my almost $150 (Canadian) to fix it. I took it to another shop and they said the same thing. The unit cost me about $300 Canadian 2 years ago. Now, MD units are so much cheaper but I just don't want to buy a MD unit and then have it die on me after a year or something. I've read many messages on different boards about people having a lot of problems with MD units. I am wondering if MD units are really that bad in terms of longivity. It seems like a lot of people have units that doesn't last them very long. Comments?