All I own are vintage mechanical machines. I prefer a straight stitch only machine over my zigzag and decorative stitch machines for piecing. A good straight stitch machine is just so quiet and smooth running compared to others. Right now the Japanese made Singer 15 clone in my avatar is my go-to machine. Before that was my 1948 Singer model 66.
My daughter had her second 4H meeting this Thursday. It was the first actual sewing session for her club. I watched for part of it. Out of the 5 machines there the only machine I saw that was as quiet and smooth as my daughter's old Montgomery Wards zigzag machine was a new Bernina Bernette. The Wards machine isn't the quietest machine we own either.
I think you have to buy a very good brand of new machine to match the performance of older machines.
Rodney