I just bought a new Viking Tribute 140c for $999. It was the demo but the new sale price was only 1199. I love this machine. For me a large harp space was the most important thing. It has 10" of space. I love to quilt my own quilts and this would make it so much easier. But it has tons of other options that makes it a super machine. It has the needle up/down. A special 1/4" stitch and the sensory system. What this does is it puts the pressure foot down and up for you. It makes machine applique a dream. When then needle is down and you stop the foot goes up. You rotate and just start again. And of course it has many more features. It is most important that you really list out features that are mandatory to you and what ones you can live without. I had to live with out a couple features to avoid spending another 1000 but I haven't really missed them. i.e. Auto thread cutter. Its going to be hard in that price range to find a machine that really has every feature you might want.