I bought a Bernina floor model. It worked perfectly and I really like it. It had less than an hour of sewing on it when I bought it. But, I got it for a reduced price because it was a floor model. The dealer was honest about it being a floor model and the small amount of use on it didn't bother me. It was not sold as new out of the box sewing machine. I am in somewhat the same problem as you. The nearest Bernina dealer to me is just not a good dealer, so even though instead of my Bernina dealer being 50 miles away, I drive in the other direction 100 miles to a different dealer. For an additional $1600, I would drive the 2.5 hours to the other dealer, IF you could.