Wow, do I feel slighted. I have a Bernette 65, that my DH bought for me about 4 years ago. I love it. I've never had any problems with it, I've had it in for service only once, and that was preventive maintenance. I buy all my accessories at the Bernina store, I think that if these machines were so awful, Bernina would stop supplying them, so they wouldn't be associated with them.
As a couple other members said, test drive some machines and decide which one you like for yourself. You know your budget, so look at machines in that range. Before my Bernette, I owned Kenmore, and I loved those too.
If we can't be nice about the different brands of machines, and everyone's preferences, we'll never have world peace! lol