I have owned Viking machines in the past. My last machine purchase was a Pfaff Performance 2056. They are both excellent machines. My Viking is still in service. It sounds like you've done your research so you're on safe ground but there is one quirky thing about my Pfaff that I'll share with you because it's not the sort of thing you'd pick up on a "test drive". When the bobbin starts to get low, it signals you, and then, with dozens of yards of thread still on the bobbin, it stops. You release the foot feed, start over, it sews a couple of inches and stop. It's aggravating because if you're near the end of a seam, you either have to put up with this stop-and-go progress or just give up and pull the bobbin, pull off all the wasted thread, and put in a new full bobbin. They may have fixed this since I bought my machine, but it might we worth your while to check. Good luck on your purchase.