Before I get too old I would like to buy another main sewing machine. The one I have, a Pfaff Expression works fine, always has done, other than the basting stitch, which has never worked, even after a 'repair'. So I've been looking and more or less decided on the new Ambition series 610, 620 and 630. Sometime this year I though, not in a hurry.
Unfortunately a fly in the ointment has appeared. None of them have sensomatic buttonholes, where you actually plug into the machine. This afternoon I tried them out on my little Passport 3 which will have the same type and then did one on my Expression. I didn't really need to compare, I could tell by looking, nothing wrong with the Passport's just that they are not filled in the same, not as many stitches filling in.
Now for somebody who only sews clothes, with just an occasional foray into quilting, it will be a Quantam leap to the Expression 710. Not so much the leap in machine, that I can handle, but the leap in price.
It's not as if I do buttonholes on every garment, but they are just so good when they are done. I had considered looking for the old Expression 3.2/4.2 but it would be a used machine with no guarantee.
So there I dither, save my pennies and push the boat out or go for second best and have a little grumble every time I do the odd set of buttonholes.