When ever you buy something that is different or special it's always more. Like I kind of want to do the glutten free for a while to see if it makes a difference but it cost 3 times the amount of regular flour product. I like the idea of a sit down due to back problems when standing too long. Viking either is or has just came out with a sit down as well so I'm really considering that. I've had great luck with Viking machines. But you can't compare a longarm or a sitdown with a regular machine no matter what the size of throat because they aren't the same. That's like comparing a laptop to a tablet, two different thing even though they are in the same computer category they are different and have different capabilities.