A few years ago, our washing machine had a part failure. Wouldn't go into the spin cycle.

Long out of warranty, so I called a repair service. $150 of labor later (including the house-call fee to show up), the cause of failure was the switch in the top that detects whether or not the lid is closed. If the lid is open, it won't go into spin cycle for safety reasons.

Cost of the replacement cheap plastic switch: $5.95. But to get to the switch, you have to know how to disassemble the machine...

Next time it fails, though, we'll probably get a new washer. I'd say that after about 20 years, the unit (inital cost around $200 back then) has more than paid for itself.