Original price for a Bernina 830 in Canada
 

Someday post a few days ago a Singer brochure with the prices for each model hand written... I looked into the documents coming with my Bernina 831 that I got this summer from a very nice lady and I found something similar.
If you were living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1973, the price you have to pay for a Bernina 830 was 549$. For a 831 (same machine with only "utility" stitches), 469$.
If I remember correctly, my dad was earning something like 50$ a week when I was born. So these sewing machine were worth a few thousand dollars in today money. Seems Bernina where worth almost two times the price of a comparable Singer. I wonder why some people with modest revenue (like the original owner of my sewing machine) decided at the time to choose a Bernina instead of a Singer; after all, Singer was a well known brand, made in Canada at this time, compared to a foreign imported one...

When I was finishing high school in 1971, my part time job was in the fabric department at Simpsons in Toronto. I saved my money and purchased a top of the line Bernina 830 Record for the huge price of $329. That was a lot of money back then. I still have that machine and she sews beautifully. Mind you, I also have my wonderful Bernina Aurora 440QE, and have just purchased a new Bernina 750QEE. They cost a lot of money, but I think they are terrific machines. Guess I am a Bernina girl!

In 1973 the top of the line Singer was a Futura. My mother bought one for my sister as a wedding gift in 1974. My sister hated it, but she didn't tell my mother.

I bought a brand new Bernina 830 in 1976 for $589 and had the first big fight with my brand new husband. I had just signed my first teaching contract at $11,200 annually and we had just bought our first house for $34,500. He figured that the sewing machine would have made several mortgage payments.

I don't know, but the Bernina would prove to be the better choice.

Plus, I think those Singer Futura machines were way more pricey than the Bernina machines.

I bought a Singer 750 in a cabinet off of Craigslist, and according to a receipt that was in a drawer, the price for the machine and cabinet, purchased in 1971, was $465. The buyer even traded in a 404, for which they received a $70 credit.

Of course, I don't know what the difference in valuation was between Canadian and American dollars back then.

I was told by someone that 30 or 40 years ago a Bernina was considered the cadillac of sewing machines.

What was the "Rolls Royce" of sewing machines then? ;)

But Bernina only appeared in the 50-60 in North America, right? So it was a newer brand than Singer (or even Pfaff) for people here. They didn't know about the durability. So the consideration that it was the "Cadillac" must have come from somewhere. Maybe they were already distinguable of their concurrents by their smoothness of operation... Maybe people where feelling, while trying it, that it was a high quality sewing machine.
I owned several vintage sewing machine, and most of them are coming from an unknown succession of owners. But the three Bernina I have all come directly from the hands of the original owner. It tells something... People don't part easily with these.

How long have the Husqvarna-Viking and Elna machines been available in North America?

Swiss engineering has generally been thought of as being very high quality, so it is likely that people already had a notion that the machines would be excellent.