I LOVE LOVE LOVE mine! I have had it 5 years and it works great. The only minor complaint I have is that it doesn't wind bobbins as well as I think it should. I don't have much experience with other embroidery machines, but to me the 8500 is very easy to use. You can edit and combine designs on the screen (to some degree), and you can save designs in the machine if you want so you don't have to use the card all the time. You can program your own decorative stitches and save those, and you can program sequences of decorative stitches and save them. It has lots and lots of decorative and utility stitches, and it even sews great, too! :)

I got mine at a show 5 years ago and they were selling the show machines for $1,500 (1/2 the retail price).

Donna