I have had the Janome 6500 for six years. I had some initial problems with it (it was missing a screw that was used to raise and lower the feed dogs) and no where in the manual or at the demo lesson was I told to add a drop of oil in the wick under the bobbin case. As a result, the bobbin jumped and rattled so badly that I put my machine needle right through the case. I finally found out about the all important oiling after reading a tip on the Janome 6500/6600 forum. The machine is sewing well now, but will pull material into the needle plate sometimes. The harp is large enough to quilt a queen size quilt and it comes with a separate walking foot. This is a good machine and it will probably be available at a reasonable price as previous owners trade it in for the new Horizon. I know that is what I am considering as I would still like more space to free motion quilt. This machine does need to be in a table(my friend's dog knocked hers on the floor and smashed it) and is too heavy to lug out to classes easily.