I would take the road trip, I had a situation like yours and I saved a ton of money. I called the dealer told him I was driving a few hours to purchase the machine. We set up a day and time that was good for both of us. He knew I was coming and had the time set aside for my husband and I. We unpacked the new box, set it up, he showed me how to thread it. He did a little adjustment on the tension and then I sewed with it and embroidered one of the built in designs. We were there for several hours and I played around with it, looked at the manual, asked lots of questions and got lots of information. That was in December and I have had no problems at all.