All I can say is my Brother XL 3500 died. It had mainly plastic parts. I took it to my local repair shop. The guy said it was beyond repair. (Brother does not make many if any replacement parts). So make sure this one has a lot of metal moving parts. Best place to look is in the bobbin area. K

COSTCO has a really great Brother machine for arond $150 that is called a quilter's machine. It includes the walking foot and the table extension. She LOVES it.

I have a brother that came with a walking foot, a quarter inch foot, and the quilting table just over a 150 dollars.
I sometimes like it better than my two vikings I use it to teach my young neices to quilt. Really nice machine I had to buy all of these accessories separate for the vikings even after spending thousands of dollars

Thank you for all the great websites and buying experience that you have shared with us not so experienced newbies.

Andie

I just bought one and have not tried it yet.

go for it Brother makes a great machine I have 3 brothers, and they all work great. none cost more than 150

I'm really suprised that your Singer still works, I bought one of the same vintage and it finally(thank God!) died after 1 1/2 years. It was trouble from day one.
I replaced it with a wonderful, no attitude Bernina 1031.
I still sew with it, had it for 18 years.

I recommend a Husqvarna Viking Emerald 116 or 118, they are a bit more than $150, but a much better machine that will last longer and sew better than the Wal-Mart Brother. You get dealer support + classes to teach you to use your new machine. If you're buying a new machine you need to spend $300-400 to get a decent machine.
I also collect and use antique sewing machines and they will still be here when the plastic low end machines have bit the dust. My oldest machine is a Singer 201 that 80 yrs old and still sewing wonderfully.

I also have a Brother CS-100 that I bought on sale at Costco about 5 years ago. Love it.

I bought a Janome at what I thought was a reputable dealer who promised me classes, support, etc, etc and never has contacted me since I bought it. To be honest he's probably glad to be rid of me. You see, I also purchased another cheaper machine, a sewing table and the acrylic piece that goes in the table for the machine. After 2 weeks the acrylic piece had never been ordered, so he ordered and said it would be sent directly to me. Two weeks later I still didn't have it and "it must be on back order". Two weeks later I called again and guess what. It had finally come in. To his shop, 60 miles from me! So off I went to get the piece for my table. I was not a happy camper when I walked into the shop and told him what I was after, he handed it to me, and I thanked him and walked out. I've never seen or heard from him again. I've heard another customer say he was very rude to her. What ever happened to customer service? I won't go back there for machine repair, service or another machine! But I do love my machine!!