I can not stress enough what others have written.... Know the features you want!! If you won't do embroidery don't buy a machine that does that. Over 20 years ago I bought my Bernina 150QE and it was head over heels love from day one. Not only the machine, but I bought the whole package which included the special table the machine sets down into. At the time Bernina was offering interest free financing for a year so I made sure to pay that baby off in the one year time. My dealer is fantabulous! Part of the deal was 5 years, yes I said FIVE years of service maintenance free! Also included free training to learn all the bells and whistles. I feel a great dealer is just as important as the machine and you would be amazed at how much you can do with the correct work station as well. I would sacrifice features so I could get the correct work station (table) for the machine. I love my Bernina.