I have an old Hobymatic Pfaff and it has been reliable... however, I just bought a Janome 6600p and am soooo excited with all it's features and how smooth she runs!
I, too, did a lot of homework before purchasing my new Janome and one of the important issues was service and lessons. My Janome dealer is less than15 miles but a Pfaff dealer is about 2 hours travel time.
good luck! I'm sure you'll be happy with either one.