You might be alright - I'm still on a 2009 MBP 13" (4Gb SSD) and a 2010 17" (8Gb, SSD) hands down the best money I ever spent.

I'm using a 17" 2010 at work with an i7, SSD upgrade, and 16Gb of RAM and its plenty fast still. At home I've got a 2010 Air that begs for more RAM yet still runs as well as when I bought it including 3+ hours of battery life depending on if I am surfing or writing. 2010-2012 was a high point in Mac laptops.

You're not alone. I actually bought one refurb from Apple this year and I plan on extending the AppleCare to the full 3 years.

My mid-2012 MacBook Pro works like a dream and has never had a problem, FWIW.