I would buy an old Singer 301. They are fabulous, portable, feed dogs dropped, save your other $1800 plus, til you really decide. The old machines you can clean and oil yourself. The new machines you must take them in each year (about a $100 to get cleaned), yet they have many nice stitches and lots of options. This would give you a portable for classes and time and money to decide what you want. I have 2 Janomes (which I love) and 4 vintage Singers which I love. If I was buying a new Janome, I would get the 6600! Which I have considered, but I don't need another machine! Yikes!