I bought a Kenmore (325.00) 20 years ago and have made everything under the sun with it. I took in in for repair for the FIRST time two days ago, and the repair man was saying how bad the machines were. Well, I love mine, never a problem. I sewed some stitches from the Kenmore and the sewed the same stitches with my Esante and you couldn't tell which was which. I also bought a Singer 99.00 for my in-law about 5 years ago so she could learn to sew. Of course she didn't learn because it was a piece of crap. I told her to get rid of it, she did.