I love mine. Do all my FMQ and piecing on it. Only use my Viking Sapphire for fancy stitches. I use all threads, never had it balk at any. That includes metallic, Connecting Threads, Coats and Clarks and the pricey stuff. It doesn't seem to care. I had trouble at first getting a "feel" for the petal. Would speed up too fast. I taped a piece of cardboard on it that required me to push a little harder to get up to high speeds. Helped a lot. Now, I don't need that anymore. Brush it out pretty much after every project and oil it every few weeks - very easy. Very cheap.
Incidentally, it is the same as the Babylock Jane and a Janome machine. You pay more for those names, but identical machine.