I have had mine for 3 years with no problems. It is a great machine, but it has two things that I don't like. First of all, when you turn the machine off, the needle defaults to the left. This is not a problem if you have a zig-zag type foot on, but if you have a straight stitch foot on, and forget to set the needle to center, the needle hits and breaks. So far, it hasn't thrown mine out of time and I have broken probably 5 or 6 needles that way. This model cannot override the factory set default, but I think the "next step up" in the Brother line it can be.
Second, the blanket stitch is not straightforward. Instead of going two stitches forward, then to the side this machine does a a crazy stitch, something like forward back, forward, side, forward, back. Makes corners almost impossible to do!
Other than that, it is a great machine, good stitch, easy to transport, comes with an ext. table, mine even came with a walking foot!