I had actually mentioned this in my PDA and here is the wording in the newsletter:
"Pfaff and Viking were purchased by Kohlberg and Company, an American equity firm that also owned Singer Sewing Machine Company. Singer, Viking and Pfaff then became SVP Worldwide and moved the manufacturing and distribution of Pfaff and Viking to China."
My thought: No wonder the quality of Pfaff is going down.
I can attest to it because of the 3 Pfaffs I currently own, 2 are the old German standard and one is obviously not. It isn't anything I can really quantify but when you are used to one set of quality, you notice when it changes. Don't get me wrong - it is still a good machine, just not for me. I plan to sell it and keep the older 2.