I bought a brother machine almost 20 yrs ago from walmart and it was a piece of junk too. I wonder if there were a few bad batches back then. My daughter has had a singer from miejer for about 10 yrs now and although she doesn't sew a lot, she's still using it from time to time.

I also have one small machine from wallmart and its working very well....most of my machines are brother and like you just said, it depends a lot on the care you take of your machine.....they don,t like to be maltreated......

I love my Janome Gem Gold, perfect size for classes. I have also had a White Crafter's Friend which was about the same size and weight but less expensive and sewed beautifully. Definitely look at Craigslist, there are a lot of inexpensive machines on there. You might also look at Freecycle - believe it or not there are people that give away machines rather than hassle with selling them for little money. Just post an ISO and see what happens. I was picking up some garden supplies off a Freecycle listing when I saw a great machine being carried out the door, I just missed it!!