Originally Posted by Jared

Thanks for your replies everyone. I really wanted to love the local sewing machine shop, especially as it seems like everyone else does, but a few more visits pretty much confirmed that the guy was not listening to me and was just really pushy with Janome, which raises an eyebrow for me. He also tried to tell me that glowing reviews online (for other brands he didn't carry) were placed there by online dealers, and of course that really didn't sit well with me at all.

I've since decided against getting a vintage machine and have pretty much narrowed it down to the Juki HZL-F400. It seems to have a really large throat/work area, easy bobbin winding and loading, thread cutter ON the pedal, knee lever, needle up/down, 150 stitches (that's about 130 more then I need!), adjustable pressure for the foot, box feed and on and on ..

Can you tell I'm excited about it!? :)

I'll need to drive farther to get it, but I'm really excited to give it a test run and see if it lives up to my expectations. It's more money then i planned on, but I don't want to regret my decision in a year so I'm going as big as I can. It will be a while until it's mine but I'll be sure to give an update once I've made a purchase!