My friend has 3 brand new Singers (bought at different times) and not one is worth setting up. They are useless and more trouble than enough. She is so fed up with them that she stores them in a closet and never takes them out. I wouldn't have one if someone gave it to me.
p.s. I never did like Martha Stewart, NOBODY knows everything about everything.

I am sorry...
I won't buy a new Singer.

The thing about her jail time is they never proved she did anything wrong. They just sent her up the river because they said she lied. Um. Well, I can think of some pretty powerful people who lied about bigger things under oath and had nothing done to them at all. Martha was framed! LOL! And yes, she gets the bucks for endorsing something even if it is a piece of junk. My old Singer (circa 1996) gave me nothing but grief. I had to take it in to get the bobbin case put back in every time I sewed anything on it. So when I wanted a better machine, DH said, "But you hardly ever sew on the one you have." Well duh. It cost me $60 to have it serviced every time I did!

I don't really like to watch her either, and it has nothing to do with her jail time!!!

I had ordered a Singer from HSN because the price was right and the features were great. The reviews on HSN were mixed and the comments I got from QB members were positive. Because HSN has a great return policy, I took the risk. Well - the darn machine ran like a tank and the quality was not what I had hoped for. I sent her back. I suspect that the machines used for demonstrations in the HSN show are tweaked to meet the guest sewer's needs. So I would not necessarily bash Martha or the other gal, but I totally agree that we need to do our homework.

Just as an aside: Viking, Singer, and Pfaff are now being managed bu a holding company VSP. Nough said on that subject.

Time will tell what happens with VSP. We just don't know.

Well, it's a sad situation for sewists everywhere. More than one company with a decades-long history of quality, reliability, and innovation have deteriorated to selling barely functionally junk by exploiting the reputation previously built. How long does it take us to wise up? And there's always someone with a perfectly functioning modern Singer. So they CAN make a decent machine, they just don't bother to be consistent about it. It's not where machines are made either. Perfectly reliable and fabulous machines come out of Asian factories by the millions. It's the corporate ethics that say, it's ok if some of what we sell is junk, as long as we keep selling. Blame the sewist for any problems. Don't give refunds. It's acceptable to have our customers spending thousands and have a machine in shop several times in the first year. Used to be that companies replaced lemons b/c they didn't want junk ruining their reputation.

I won't be buying any machine, but if I did it would be a Janome.