I have had problems with the take-up lever which has now been fixed though occasionally it unthreads in the middle of sewing. I usually find it does not like the thread I am using. I have only "played" with free motion so far but I don't think it is going to perform the way I wanted. I like certain features but wish I had kept my 23 year old Janome as well. I realise now it was ahead of its time. I should have test driven more machines but got carried away with the IDT feature which other machines now have.