Stick to your guns!
When we moved into our house in late 2009, it had a KA dishwasher, older than yours, I'm sure. I could NOT figure out how to get the cycle to start. No idea if it was operator error, or a fixable mechanical problem. Unfortunately, it was years before I discovered this wonderful community and I saw it as an opportunity to buy a shiny new all-the-buttons and bells and whistles machine. So many layers of regret!!! Aside from wishing I'd done the right thing by the old brown beast, I also paid WAY too much (the price dropped by nearly half within 6 months), and have had my share of reliability issues with it. Even had to buy a new flatware basket on Amazon over the summer b/c the bottom was disintegrating and allowing the handles to drop through (fortunately, it blocked the rack from rolling back in, rather than blocking the spray arm, so I at least knew what the problem was before it caused a real problem).
I'm hoping that I can find a suitable vintage double wall oven to replace the modern GE micro/oven wall combo that was in the house when we bought it. It's probably just as well that I don't know what the original unit was. (The house built in '62, and the kitchen was probably re-done in the 70's, based on the age of the Jenn Air cooktop.)