Agree with Marion. Read the other articles, go to a handful of dealers selling different makes of machines and test drive them. That will help you figure out your budget and determine which features you must have, and which features you can live without. Be sure to ask your dealer about trading in your old machine, and if they have any used machines for sale.
Sometimes a machine will just *talk* to you, sometimes a dealer will offer a price you just can't walk away from, but you might find that you can only narrow down to say 2 machines. When you've narrowed your choices down to a few come back to the board and ask specific quesions of the owners of each machine.
And welcome to the board from Illinois!