When you purchase your machine, ask when it was manufactured. I purchased a Husquvarna (great machine!) but the dealer I purchased from said, "Wait until next week - we have some NEW mid range priced machines coming in then. I waited and purchased what I thought was a new, state of the art machine. When I needed to replace a part, I call Husquvarna directly and found out that my machine had been manufactured in 1990 and had been sitting on warehouse shelves since then. They released them to dealers in 2005 as a "special purchase", which is when I purchased mine. Husquvarna was not to blame (although they were not very helpful) - it was the dealer who "led me astray". I paid a lot of $$ for 15 year old technology thinking I was getting a state of the art machine. My first clue should have been that it did not have a needle threader on it. I thought it was odd that they would leave that off of a new model, but didn't ask enough questions.
Good luck, and make sure you are working with a reputable dealer! Let us know which machine you decide on! I need to upgrade! :)