I wish I knew more people in my guild and would feel comfortable sending out an email blast asking them all to measure their machines, LOL. I don't see other people doing stuff like that though, so that's probably a no-no. (Plus I think I've missed more meetings than I've attended, ooops)
I'm home from work now and just measured my Janome 3160 and I wasn't imagining that it was big, it measures out to almost 11-1/2" at the needle!
I happen to have a non-working copy of the machine I learned on (Pfaff 332-260) that I tend to forget about, so I just measured it too and its arm is 9-1/4. Not my "ideal" but pretty good for a non-miniature machine. I've been thinking of treating myself to getting this one fixed (if it can be) so that might do. I'd still like smaller if I can get it, though.
I'm actually not even sure what's wrong with it, but it sounded dire and frightening. Now that I'm more comfortable with machine guts I should at least open it up and see. I was so disappointed I just put it at the back of a high shelf so I wouldn't have to see it and think about how badly I got hosed on buying it. (Never drink and browse on ebay, it leads to unwise impulse buys!)