Here's another idea, Starling: When I got serious about test driving, I took quilting classes from the dealers. The Innova dealer is a good 90 minutes away, but it was completely worth it to drive down there and take a 5-hour "Beginning Longarmer" class. The awesome thing? The purpose of the class wasn't to sell a machine, it was to teach people who had never longarmed how to operate the machine and how to quilt. There were 5 other quilters there, and we learned how to load the frame, adjust tension, etc. Then the instructor taught us quite a few stitches and tricks, then we progressed to pantos, and then on to working out our own designs. It was GREAT for giving the machine a long and thorough test drive. They had several different machines set up in the classroom and all of us students roamed around, looking and test-driving each other's machines and asking questions about the various accessories. It was nice to hear what other people's thoughts were on the machines they were working with, not to mention looking and being inspired by their work.