Smith and Wesson M&P...
I've owned several Rugers over the years. I've been a huge supporter of their products on this, and other, forums. They have some good revolver designs, but their QC really, really sucks. So does their support. I've phoned in several times with several complaints, on new guns, and their standard answer seems to be "send it in and we'll have a look at it".
They wanted me to send new guns in, on my own dime, to fix problems that should have never existed in the first place. I was not completely satisified with two of the guns that I bought from them. When phoning in, they didn't even give me assurance that they'd fix the problems free of charge. Whether the gun would be fixed for free or not depended on someone's opinion of whether the gun was within specs. Heck, after spending $600 on a *new* gun, I expect *a lot* more.
As much as I like some of their designs, I can't see myself ever buying another Ruger. I'd only buy a new Ruger that was perfect or if I needed a POS to bang around. If things improve, I'll probably go back to Ruger for my revolvers, at least. The problem is that these guns are almost always flawed, and after waiting months and months to buy a particular revolver, I settled for the best, flawed guns that I could find. These are the only products that I can think of that come flawed "off the shelf." If I bang up the gun on my own, I'm fine with that. I expect, however, that a new gun should come to me with good fit and finish. I don't want to buy new and invest more money to make it right. In any other market, you'd get a discount on buying a new, flawed product.
I recently bought a M&P from Smith and Wesson. The gun was perfect. They struggled a little out of the gate with this model, but they *fixed* the problems. At this time, M&Ps are among the best autoloaders available. Smith and Wesson also supports their customers. If there is a problem, they fix them for free. They also pay for shipping, both ways. Try shipping a 45 oz gun overnight via fedex and see how much it costs you before you criticize me on this.
I can't comment on other US gun manufacturers, but I can tell you that I'd buy Smiths over Rugers, at this time. I'm actually thinking about selling my remaining Rugers and using that money to buy more M&Ps. The one thing that I can say is that Ruger listens to their customers. I complained about how the SR9 barrels were 2/100 of an inch too short to be offered on the Canadian market. Within a year, their new catalog came out and they converted all of their 4" guns into barrel lengths that were legal in Canada. I'm sure that I was not the only one clamouring for this. Ruger did listen to their customers. Maybe things will improve at Ruger and I'll buy more stuff from them. Until that happens, I'm an Smith and Wesson man.
I know that I've railed about revolvers, but there seems to still be a lot of complaints about the SR9s. They've also had several recent safety recalls. That is a red flag in my book.