I bought a used Bernina years ago...off eBay!...and felt confident as we have a machine tech here in the Vancouver, BC area who does fabulous work. I knew he could get my machine up and purring. He's an independent (Eurotech) and I found him just by accident, but ask around the local quilt guilds to see if you have someone like that in your locale if you are thinking of buying used. When I finally saved up enough for a Featherweight, I took that one in too for a checkup and fine tuning.