You suffer from false nostalgia. The old machine is a beast, yes, but it has a swing shuttle. It holds very little thread, is hard to wind and load, gets tangled and makes a really crappy lockstitch. Has no reverse, piss poor stitch length adjustment and not enough balls to handle any layers without the belt slipping.

The new one is a piece of crap in comparison of build quality, but in terms of function and utility it blows the old one out of the water. And price.

I have an old one and have used it lots. It's fun to use, but far from efficient. I'll keep it around for the apocalypse but I'll use a modern one from at least the 70's (the nineteen seventies).