Socata seem to be stuck in the dark ages
Well they would be if they were still making planes
First, ~ 2 years ago, one of their execs made a really stupid mistake; he announced that TB production has been stopped pending an improvement in market conditions. This killed any potential sales right away. The right way to handle that would be to shut up, build one final (big) batch with all the avionics options in, and quote a long lead time to new enquiries. That way you keep all the options open.
Now, they are working on building the TB series in Romania, in an EADS facility connected with the Eurocopter, or something like that. The new model will have a glass cockpit; you can't give away planes now without one of those. I don't think anybody outside Socata knows more. EADS also owns SMA whose diesel looks nice.
The key is the US market, of course. European IFR tourer sales can be counted on the fingers of one hoodie. Socata has had a dedicated following out there, a lot of respect, attracting mostly the more experienced pilots, and has a super safety record. Fantastic plane. Not one in-flight structural failure, great customer service (
not in Europe) and fuel flow per KT no worse than an SR22. But they've screwed up their market and I doubt they will get back in - unless they bring out something damn good.
There is also the Czech VUT Cobra - basically all that a new TB20 (or any decent 4-seat IFR tourer) should be, but a lot cheaper. And VUT are lining up American dealers as we speak.
Personally I don't care for the present glass cockpits. They integrate a lot of less than reliable avionics into one unit... great. Give me my HSI, MFD, etc anytime