I would travel 2.5 hours to save the $600, let alone $1600. You can buy a lot of lessons for $1600. Besides Janome has a lot of instruction on their website and there are youtube videos on this machine. Also, there is a Janome yahoo group for embroidery machines...I would have told the first store, can you match the other dealer's price and the sales tax with a new in the box machine. When they said "no", I would start for the door. My local dealer has always matched website prices less tax on my Janomes and Babylock sergers. They reduce their price a little more to bring down the price so they can report their sales tax. I would never purchase a machine of this magnitude if it was not brand new in the box. Say what you will about it is OK to purchase a floor model, but this particular machine is very expensive and there are a lot of computerized parts and misusing this machine during a sewing "test" on the floor could render this machine inoperable, requiring it to be sent back to the factory. This is the top of the line embroidery machine with wonderful features. You know that the dealer 2.5 hours away will also ship this machine to you. It may cost $80 or more, but it may be worth it to you, rather than driving there. However, a nice drive and the chance to get them to set up your machine out of the box and show you how to use it would be great. I have six Janomes, love them all. I have two 6600's and two 8900, since we travel to a cabin once a month. I also have a 350E and 11000SE.
The Janomes are real workhorses, particularly the 6600 for quilting. I am still learning the 8900. I now have a wonderful dealer that I buy from out of state. She ships my Janomes to me in their original box and I have never had any problems with the machine. I do ask for them to ship FedEx rather than UPS. Too many problems with UPS...a subject for another topic..let me say that UPS Claims Manager told me that all of their boxes go end over end numerous times in shipment and they pay no attention to the words "fragile and this end up" written on the outside, about the only time they pay half way attention is if the item has "Glass" written on the box. I have my out of state dealer put large "GLASS" labels on their machine boxes sent to me even is it is FedEx.