IMHO..If you just want a straight stitch machine a nice old 301 Singer is a great machine. I'm not sure what you have available in that regard where you are, but you might check with your old sewing machine shop and see what they have.
I've worked in a quilt shop for 3 years and I did not like the low end Janome machines. I have a newer Babylock that is pretty good, but none of the newer machines are as good as some of the old model singers. 201, 221, 301 specifically are well made machines and will run for your lifetime. If you think you'll do some knitwear sewing you might want a machine that does zig zag, but for straight stitching only...stay with Singer, Kenmore, Bernina, Pfaff or the older basic, steel and iron babies :).
If you're talking about doing freemotion it's nice to have feedogs that drop. My Babylock didn't like doing freemotion, it was too fine tuned to do embroidery to respond to all the needle deflecting that goes on when you do freemotion.