I am so glad you found your dream machine. I guess I am getting cranky in my old age. I just don't put up with things like I used to. Before I purchased my Babylock (at the dealers) I was researching a certain Singer serger. Now I had already heard that Singer was supposedly not as good as the old one, but I wanted to test this particular serger. So I called our local dealer to make sure they had one I could sit down and test. And what do they do?? They start telling me how awful it is, you can't get parts, you would not be happy with this, you should look at this machine instead. I ended up sending Singer an email. I am sorry but if your a dealer and presenting that company, you should not bad mouth them. I did receive a reply to my email too. Singer was very dissappointed in hearing this was the way the dealer was representing their Brand.
The sad part is, what if, Singer was good again, what if they were producing high end machines that work wonderful and no one gave them a chance because of Dealers like the one I ran into. I personally just think its bad practice for any dealer to do that. Needless to say when I went shopping for my new machine, I did not even bother to visit their store. I would never purchase from them, even if they were the only place in town.
Personally I think they should post their prices online, and just explain you have to come into the store to purchase it. For alot of folks that would save alot of driving around from dealer to dealer. As it seems they all carry more than one brand of sewing machine, and some carry the same as others.