Originally Posted by
Gymnast2
If you can find a Singer 237, it would be a good and reliable machine as well and often you can get them to a lower price.
The unknown Singer she mentioned appears to be a
Singer 237.
I would personally choose the 431G, as I love the slant shank machines and is reported to be great machine. I'm not sure I would recommend it for someone's first machine. For one thing, I don't think it will fit in a cabinet, should you decide to put it in one. I do not have a 431g, nor are the common in the US, but it appears to be similar to the Singer 401. The 401s are so tightly machined that they can get "frozen" with old oil. It's a real pain to free them up. It just takes time. I would buy it anyway. If you should decide to buy it, make sure
all the extensions are still there. Sometimes, those get broken. If you are not familiar with the machine, you might not notice it.
Past that, I have no recommendations, as I'm not familiar with the other machines you mention. I can tell you this, however, you can usually get parts for Singer if you need them as they are so common.
bkay