Yes, the machine can be a lemon. Take the machine back to the dealer right away and demo what the machine is doing wrong. Check the warranty on the machine too.

There's so much variation in dealers! It makes shopping that much harder, I completely understand opting out of the whole dealer thing. I'm very lucky, the place that sold us my Juki 2010 told me that if there was an issue in the first 7-10 days they'd give me another new machine. They were also $100 less than Amazon. They have free lifetime lessons too but that's pretty standard I believe. I've bought two machines from them and I send folks there all the time. We have another dealer in town that told me "mechanical machines are basically crap" (but he carries the Juki 2200Mini which is just like the 2010 go figure) but he won't carry the more basic beginner mechanicals so he doesn't get my business. Honestly it's easier to get machines on Amazon.

same issue
 

I am having the same sort of issue. My machine is just about a year old, has already spent time at Juki (about a month). Mine dethreads at the start...once I get it to sew, it is okay, but getting it to sew means rethreading several times. When I compare it to my other machine the tl2000 qi, this one is a pain in the butt. I am actually considering buying another 2000 and using this one only for zigzag. Very disappointing.

Lift your presser foot to open the tension discs and see if the thread pulls through smoothly. If there's any kind of tension or "bumpy" feeling as you pull it through, it's in the threading.
Also, where is it breaking? Is it shredding or just snapping?

Coats and Clark cotton thread spools have the little slit.

I won a set of C&C cotton thread at guild door prize drawing. The spools have the snap spool, no slit. I remember the old spools had the slit but thought they would be long gone by now.

This happens on my frequently. Also from time to time the thread will get looped around the raising thread bar and will jam up. All of this is related to the spool of thread hanging up. The way I have tried to resolve this most of the time is to turn the spool around so it leaves the spool with the thread to the front side facing you. It seems to work for me.