I bought my 440QE in 2006, soon after I started quilting. (Gosh, has it been that long?) I don't think I've spent more than $200 in repairs in all that time. I love sewing on it, and it has all the features I want. Perhaps that's because I've never had the newer features, like automatic thread cutter, so I don't know what I'm missing? One reason I bought that model was because of the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator), which I used on a lot of quilts before I started quilting on a longarm. I also purchased the embroidery module, which was a mistake. It had to be used in conjunction with software on a laptop, so it wasn't convenient or easy to use.