Sean,
I remember the last time Colt "turned things around" and everyone said their quality was much better, blah, blah, blah. These reports seem to indeed come in every ten years or so. Yet I never see anyone going back and recommending Colts from any particular period in the past (except WWII).
Until shown otherwise, I don't think it's ridiculous to assume the new rumors of Hartford quality as unfounded as all those in the past. If you're right, in 2012 we'll all be recommending Colts made in the last ten years. But right now it appears a little to early to tell if all the guns are good, or if this is another brief spurt of quality or if they stopped cutting corners. But why recommend an unproven product? Let someone else be the guinee pig.
Why not tell him to buy a used 1991A1? Everyone loved those things, back in 1991.