Joe, Why not give 1911Tuner a PM? He knows a heck of alot more about 1911s and has laid his eyes on factory 1911s from all brands. It's pretty well known that any factory gun is not going to be set up "perfectly," the best you can hope for is a gun that runs reliably and feeds everything you give to it. Both the Kimber and the S&W will do that and both companies will stand behind the gun if it doesn't. Stepping up a notch to a semi-custom like Baer, Brown, Wilson, Nighthawk, might give you one that runs correctly (then again it might not). After my experiences my preference is to buy a factory gun and expect to put a good 200-500 (depending on the level of customization) dollars into it with a Smith to get it running "correctly." It's a shame that I have had to develop my knowledge of the gun so much to understand why it was failing, but IMHO that is to be expected today with factory 1911s.
Your question is really more of a Pepsi vs. Coke thing, they are both on the same playing field and you should make your choice based on features and price. If this were a gun you need to depend on for competition or carry I would factor in getting it looked over by a smith you trust (harder then it sounds, the first well thought of local smith I went to did cosmetically inferior work I couldn't trust), or go for something like a Glock or Sig. My preference despite my bad experiences would be for S&W because although they may not get it fixed in a timely manner, they are polite and don't ask questions. They just send a shipping label and take the gun back,
RE other 1911 manufacturers like Sig - No one really knows which manufacturer has the best QC or parts, only the manufacturers themselves know. Sig was known to have some assembly problems with the early GSRs and I have been hearing fewer and fewer complaints on Sig forum which makes me believe their assembly is getting better. Their parts have always been top notch and the absence of MIM parts in the Sig 1911's is something the company likes to brag about. I would give some thought to the Sig 1911's, if they were available in MA they would be my first choice. They main disadvantage of the Sig 1911's is that their profile makes finding holsters a little more tricky because Sig recontoured the slide.
