Well as I see everyone loves their particular machines. I'm a Husq Viking and Vintage Singer lady. What I find once you pick a particular brand (I have an SE sewing/embroidery combo) you put so much money into supplies for it...Feet, hoops I really have to stick w/that brand in the future because accessories are interchangable. Main reason I love my Viking is the foot lefts automatically for pivots, thread cutter and threader. I guess one of these days I'll investigate other brands for those particular items because now I'm spoiled and can't live w/o it.
But if I had to replace my Viking the newest combo goes for 15,500 and no way would I spend that on a new machine. Gone are the days of getting machines for reasonable prices.