I can't speak to what others are saying about the sewing machines being made cheaper so they can be sold cheaper. Personally, I would have to hear that directly from the company before I'd believe it 100% because it just doesn't make sense to me that a machine would have the same name and serial number as one in another store if wasn't the same exact machine. But what I CAN speak to is the fact that my very first machine that I started quilting with was the cheapest Brother machine they had at Wal-Mart. That was 4 1/2 years ago and it's still running just as good as it ever did. I've thrown everything at it, including making a dog bed out of denim fabric. That bed was big enough for a Husky to sleep on, and to make it durable I sewed each block of it rag quilt style, with a piece of denim on each side plus the batting in between. That means that to sew each block together, I had to go through four thicknesses of denim plus two thicknesses of batting. It never blinked an eye! And it never complains about the type of thread I use. It also holds up just fine to fast stitching, since I don't have the patience to go at it slowly. LOL! My fancy-schmancy machine that I paid $400 for (after a $200 discount) has given me NOTHING but trouble. It doesn't like going through more than two thicknesses of fabric, I'm constantly having to rip out seams that it makes bird's nest out of, and I now never use it for anything other than the blanket stitch when I'm doing applique. My next machine WILL be another Brother from Wal-Mart that has the fancier stitches AND the drop feed on it that sells every day for $139.99. Hope this helps! :c)
Donna