I bought mine from Sam's when sergers were just appearing on the sewing horizon and it has never quit on my yet. Traveled on a bus with a drum corps one summer. Did all sorts of extraordinary things: replaced the sparkly lapels on right around 100 marching uniforms with satin fabric and satin stitched edges; built baby clothes; pieced a quilt top; made clothes for me; made uniforms and flags for that drum corps; repaired the tonneau cover for my husband's MGB. It is the serger with the black thread sitting right this instant on the table in my sewing room right next to the Husqvarna top of the line, white threaded one. Guess which one gets used most.
I love my 1440. Mechanical. No big deal gizmos. It gets cleaned and lubricated regularly. It gets the occasional new knife or a sharpened one as well as new needles. Singer still sells the knives. (Goodness, a supported machine. What a concept.) My machine gets taken to someone I respect for a now and then once over and tune up. There is nothing good enough to say about this machine has behaved and how it responds to having care by its owner.
The manual is complete and understandable. Yes, threading is a little arcane but once you use the tip of attaching your new thread to the thread already in the machine and pulling it through, it gets to be a piece of cake. Since I bought from Sam's there was no owner's class. Years later I discovered a Singer dealer who was giving "brush up" classes on it. Every once in a while I run into a class and I take it. Every time I do, I learn some more good stuff.
Do enjoy your new machine. And by the way, that baby/the drum corps member is now a 35 year old mechanical engineer, husband and father. I made our granddaughter's first quilt with it. 3 generations of service. Good machine.