I think S&W makes some good looking and practical autoloaders..
My experience with them is short, but not that great..
Two incidents come to mind..
-The only time I shot a S&W auto was a rental .45 at a range in Long Beach, CA.........That .45 was the loosest , jammingest, sloppiest pistol I've ever shot. After about half a box of jams, I carried it back to the counter and got a Glock 21 I believe..... There's no telling how many rounds had been through that S&W causing it to jam so bad.....
Another was at a combat course put on in Jacksonville, FL..
I was there representing my PD, and Jacksonville PD's SWAT Team was also there.. It was very nasty out, and we were all wearing parka's and such...
Anyway, out of about 8 Jax SWAT guys, 3 of them had lots of trouble with their S&W's on the range that day, and their armorer had to break a couple of them down during the shoot.. I had a Beretta 92 at the time, was dropping my mags in the mud and slop when reloading, shaking them out before topping them off again and just plinking away... The same went for those on the range with Glocks and Sigs that day. No problems
This is my very limited experience with them, but you can see they were not very good experience..Maybe things have improved, but I 'm a little hesitant to buy one..