What do you want to do? Do you just piece? Do you want to quilt your own quilts? Do you want to do any other kind of sewing?
Those questions are important. If you want to quilt your own quilts, the throat space is important. How important is needle up or needle down to you?
My suggestion is to decide what is most important to you and rate them, then decide on your budget. If the budget is not adequate for your wants, drop the less important wants. An example is: throat space is #1 and embroidery is #5. Drop the embroidery from the list.
Some of the considerations might be how often it has to be serviced, how long is the warranty, what does the warranty cover, how comfortable is it to operate, how big is the throat, how do other quilters rate it, how many useful decorative stitches does it have, how heavy is it, do you have to take lessons on how to operate it, etc.
I would look and try different machines just to get your list worked out. Some sewing machine sales people are very persuasive, so you want to avoid making a decision before you are ready. Have a pat answer for why you can't make a decision today. For instance, "I have to ask my husband" is a good way to avoid the "close". Or, "My mother has the final say", or "I want to run it by my friend, Jane, who is a great quilter". Make up your own excuse for why you can't do it now. Maybe it's just, "I really have to sleep on it before I make a decision", but stick to your guns. (I used to have a neighbor who sold sewing machines and he showed me a lot about selling sewing machines.)
bkay