I had a good Singer for many years and then started to have problems. Since I do mostly straight stitching, I figured Singer would be fine. Well, I went through two of the cheap ones and had nothing but problems. I got one at JoAnns and one at Walmart. Luckily the Walmart one was new enough I could return it.
I went with a basic Bernina Activa 210 and I love it. Well worth all those extra dollars I paid for it. Plus it came with a couple years service and maintenance for free (I suppose it isn't free when you consider the cost of the machine but you know what I mean :-).