I wonder if they are planning on releasing a new full size lathe too. They discontinued the old one. I stopped by on my way home from work and they were sold out and didn't have a floor model.
In my Honest and relatively experienced opinion with "entry level" machinery like Harbor Freight, Wen, Skil, Etc. , if you are looking for a full-size lathe (Or Drill Press, End Mill, Sander, Planer, etc.), I'd strongly recommend to forget about Harbor Freight, and any other similar "cheaper" lathes (the smaller Grizzly, Wen, Turncrafters, etc.) and save your money for something like a Jet , Laguna, Record Power, etc. (Price range in the mid 2K's to lower 3K's)
The Fit and Finish of those cheaper lathes is a crapshoot and can be anywhere from "Piece of Junk soon as you unbox it" to "Fairly decent but not a forever lathe" You'll be spending a lot of time fiddling around with adjustments (No such thing as set it and forget it with those things) to get it (and keep it) set up nicely (I Still have to re-tighten, loosen, adjust, re-tighten again on my HF lathe, and even then it can't hold a straight line for multiple turnings due to very loose tolerances on the fit of the components like tailstock, headstock, etc.) - Basically if you already have a usable lathe, and looking for an upgrade, HF and its kin ain't an upgrade...
I wanted to get a nicer one (Like Powermatic 3520, or a Harvey T-60, I thought briefly about the T-40 but I'm shooting for a 16" swing - 14 inch is just a tad too small after accounting for banjo clearance and non-round blanks, otherwise I'd be planning on a T-40 with bed extension) but my budget won't let me do that, so Jet JWL-1642 is pretty much gonna be "it" for me.
Just my 2 cents worth (Which is about as valuable as the 2 pennies)