The Cortez will get fixed, have no doubt, but as far as debth goes, this is very relative. My Cortez will find coins deeper than most any other detectors as long as I use no Discrimination. As far as accurately identifying coins my Cortez hits about 6". More shallow on Nickles and I don't know why. As a Coin Hunter that mainly hunts yards and other places where I can not make a mess the ID is crucial. I have had a bunch of detectors over the years and the ID on my Cortez is one of the best. If you want to Cherry Pick most any Detector will do that if you put the Discriminate high. The good thing about the Cortez is that you can set the Discriminate low just above iron and use the Notch. A Silver is great but if it don't have Notch I can't use it.