I have a Symphonic SE436D VCR from 1996. It was an xmas gift. But amazingly, it is still in use by me 9 years later. And I use it a lot (although it is just one of like 15 VCRs I have as I collect older VHS/Beta VCRs.) Amazingly, this one actually handles the tape much better than some of my VCRs, and the HIFI audio sounds great on it. It even tracks extremely well. But mine seems to be just the exception, not the rule. I don't understand why mine works so well. People have given me so many of those Funai VCRs to fix. Junk... My parents had a spare Symphonic, and it either ate tapes (cheap mode switch problem), the HIFI audio never tracked correctly, and it went into the garbage the day the worm gear on the loading mechanism broke in half.

I also have a Go Video (Goldstar) DVD+VHS combo from 2 years ago that is actually hooked to all my TVs via a video distribution amp. I am actually surprised at that thing too. It was cheaper than other combos in price. Yet it works extremely well. Although right when I bought it, I had to take it back because the DVD drive was dead.

But it seems like most VCRs after the early 90's went to junk. Those older VCRs were real VCRs. I got VCRs older than me that still work great on all original parts aside from new belts and a cleaning. A coworker gave me a 1985 Magnavox (Panasonic clone). A rather feature rich model that has linear stereo with Dolby B noise reduction, microphone inputs, etc. All it needed was a new rubber tire on the idler after all those years. I am surprised that almost all of the prerecorded VHS tapes all have linear stereo with Dolby B, even as of late.