I think I'm a minority on this thread, but my two Kimbers did not work well out of the boxes, both bought this year (2008).
-the 1st one, a TLE II, mainly had a slide-stop problem (failure to feed; premature slide locking) which break-in didn't remedy. Kimber, by sending a replacement part and a local gunsmith acquaintance cured it.
-my 2nd one, an SIS Custom, is in NY right now, having Kimber figure out and fix why it went full-auto during only the 3rd magazine through the gun. I'm confidant Kimber will cure this.
I believe Kimber's frames, slides, and barrels are fine. Now that I know more, I won't get another Swartz safety gun, hence, the SIS, which doesn't have that feature. If the Swartz safety ever fails me, and I'm still alive, I'll remove it.
With the money spent, I could have bought one higher-priced gun (Wilson, Les Baer, etc.) and I may have had a higher probability of it working out-of-the-box. You'll find people who also have not had 100% reliability on the higher-priced guns, too, however.