Maia...what a great source of information you have here...Thank You so much..I will avoid them like the plaque...they say they have been in business since 1949...From your experiece,I wonder how...Does not sound good to me..I guess the word 'outlet' does that to me anyway...Not worth the $200 difference to mess with people like that..I'll look into the other machines that are akin to Janome..thanks again..