Back in the late 90's I had 3 Kimbers and they were great, sold them all off after a $1000 Super America had to go back to Kimber 5 times and the service manager told me I was crazy and should just sell the rifle. Thing shot brass straight up into the scope base and dropped it back into the chamber, of course they refused to mount a scope for testing it.
Since that time I have compared Kimbers to whatever I was buying and generally came to the conclusion that they are resting a bit on their laurel's and probably about $200 of every Kimber goes towards their extensive advertising. Let's face it, due in large part to marketing & fancy milling they are the Glock of the 1911 world.
A month or so ago I decided to buy a compact 1911 after selling my EMP 9mm and I had my heart set on the STI. I went to a local shop who stocks a lot of 1911 and had about 10 compacts to choose from (they don't sell Kimber, for a reason).
I looked at 3-4 STI's, 3-4 Colts and a few Springfield's. i was a bit disappointed in the fit and finish of the STI's, all of them. Two of them wouldn't lock back on anything but Wilson Mag's and they had fairly sloppy safeties. Of the Colts, the New Agents were the best overall and one Defender was a bit sloppy but still pretty nice. The Springfield's were nice but $100 more across the board. I went with the Colt Talo New Agent and have no regrets. Decent trigger and 250 flawless rounds so far.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I find myself in the market for a 9mm 1911, went to another shop the had a good deal on the Smith Pro Series and while I was there compared it to the Kimber Aegis II. The Kimber was $200 more and honestly didn't hold a candle to the Smith. The Smith had more features, less MIM and a better trigger that was about 1.5# less. Overall it also had better fit and finish.
My buddy has an older Kimber in .40 and loves it. After about 2000 rounds the extractor broke which I thought was premature but Kimber did fix it for him and he was happy with the speed.
Sorry for the long post, just sharing some experiences.