Clare,
Right now I have many machines. But I only have two specific machines I can call favorites and one brand model as a favorite.
The first specific favorite is my mom's old HOTHER. A 50s vintage Japanese 15 clone made my JUKI. Beautiful machine, she had it for as long as I can remember. Sewed with it until not long before her death when she got a Kenmore in a cabinet.
The other favorite machine is my Alden Model SUZ-2. Probably 60+ pattern combinations and it sews so nice.
The machine model that's my favorite is the Singer Model 66. They are big machines with a large arch, will sew threw most anything within reason and they are simple to maintain and fix. They have big parts, nothing flimsy and week in them.
Joe