I don't sew at top speed. I have an older machine that getting parts for takes a literal Act of Congress because there's just no spare parts to find, so I'm super, super careful with it. My machine also doesn't do the whole start slow then move up in speed, as soon as I touch the knee press, I'm off to the races, so I start and stop a lot when I first start on a new project or I haven't been at the machine in quite some time. I'd rather be slow and accurate than fast and have issues anyway, so it works to my benefit.