I will admit that I have been a Bernina lover for a long time. But recently, I heard about the Pfaff with thebuilt in walking foot and tested the Pfaff machines. Just this month I purchased a Pfaff Ambition Essential. Justt the basic model. There are two more Ambition Essential machines with more bells and whistles but I was mostly concerned with the built in walking foot to use if for straight stitch piecing because I was sick of having to use pins to keep my fabric layers together. I have not used it alot yet but so far I love it. It works wonderful. This Pfaff model is on sale this month for $599 (the MSR price is $899). I feel it is a very good machine for $599 and would highly recommend it if you are looking for something without a lot of bells and whistles. And I love the needle threader on it.--It works better than the needle threader on my Bernina machines.