Everyone is different, we all like and want different things from our machines so trying to give advise on this is rather difficult. On that note, I will say that my workhorse machine is my Viking Daisy. It is about 13 years old, very simple..but never once have I had a problem. I also bought a used Viking Designer 1 with many bells and whistles. And while I like it very much, I do not use it as much as I thought I would. Good luck on your search and the best advise is to just go 'test drive' the ones you may be interested in. :)