I might buy a Singer Confidence 7465 - any advice?

[elQuintoConyo]

I have an Alfa Inizia that's been a real warhorse for 5/6 years, but it has just bitten the dust. Waaaah! It was a simple machine, perhaps one step up from the Ikea basic, pretty sturdy.

I have been reading great things about the Singer Confidence 7465. Does anyone have one? There is one Singer shop in my town and they have bugger all, quite frankly, either the basics for the crisis (repairing holes, etc), or for making velvet curtains and re-upholstering your sofa! Neither are good for me.

A friend has the Confidence 7463, but reviews are terrible!

I'm conflicted! Any help greatly appreciated.

Bumping up my own jam over here

I'd recommend a Janome, Singer are not very reliable. Janome Excel 5024 is a great machine.

Wow! An answer! Thanks poppyinstitches

I am actually going to go for an Alfa Next40, after lengthy reviews.

I am in Spain, so buying a sewing machine over the internet is not something I'm comfortable with and there are no Janome distributers here. Not many companies have an outlet here - Singer, for example, they need to be inported from UK/Germany. It's all a bit daft. Alfa are from northern Spain, so if I have problems they can be dealt with easily.

The Janome looks great and is a good price. It's funny how some of the 200pound (sorry, don't have 'pound' sign on computer!) machines are still decribed as beginner machines, then the next lot up are around 400!

I was really happy with my Alfa, and it has done a shedload of work for such a simple machine, really a lot of work.

Thanks again.

Poppy is right about singer having a terrible reputation and janome having a much better reputation.
I do have a singer though and I love it. I only bought it because it was a third of the normal selling price (I got it as a special offer at Lidl). It had terrible reviews and I was almost out off buying it but as singer offer a three year guarantee and will collect your machine from your house if it develops a fault (in the UK) and return it when repaired I decided it was worth the risk buying it. It is so much better than my previous machine (inherited toyota).
I use janome machines at college and can't get to grips with them and find them very basic for the money so sometimes I take my own machine along.
I guess different people like different machines and they key is finding a machine that you like and are happy using. Having a machine you like and can use easily makes sewing a more pleasant task. Go to a big machine shop where you can try out lots of different machines to find one you like.
If money was no object I would probably buy a Bernina.