I have two sewing machines: an old (early 1950's) Singer, and a four year old White.

Singer Pros: It's completely bulletproof (possibly literally... as near as I can tell, it's made of cast iron, and feels like it weighs a hundred pounds, not including the table it's built into!), and eternally reliable. Parts for it are still easy to get, and it's really easy to use.

Singer Cons: It feels like it weighs a hundred pounds, and it only does straight or basic zig-zag stitches. (It's nice to have options for some other stitches, but I'm not sure it's really necessary most of the time) It's pretty hard to do cuffs, for instance, since it's built into a table. Possible, but difficult.

White Pros: Lots of stitch options, highly portable. Having a free arm makes some things a LOT easier.

White Cons: Umm.... everything else? It's a pretty poor design, and I constantly have problems with it.

I'm getting ready to pull the singer out of storage and make space for it in my house, since I'm hoping to try making myself a kilt this summer -- I'm just not willing to put that much effort into using the newer one!

I've seen similar machines at yard sales, running as low as $10 and as high as about $100, depending on their condition.

Good luck!