we are not selling very many Remingtons as compared to the other brands or even past sales history.... we continually hear the same as you read here, complaints as to the quality and most definitely the cost of the rifles.
Remington did the same thing with autoloading shotguns. Decades ago, they were at the top of the heap -- not necessarily the
best shotguns at any price, but the best, well-balanced, reliable "working guns" for the money. Through the years, they really didn't improve the designs. Some say the quality went down.
Meanwhile, with 40 years to work with, other companies caught up, passed, and eventually beat the pants off what Remington was offering. Meanwhile, Remington, whose management were apparently vacationing on Mars, kept making the same stuff and trying to use their marketing spiel to sell it.
Despite what a few Remington fanatics on this board may post, the serious shotgunning world hasn't taken Remington's claims of greatness seriously for a very, very long time.
Remington is now doing this with rifles. The 700 was a hell of a rifle when pitted against what was around 20 years ago. Now, it has a whole list of worthy competitors. Despite this, Remington has raised the prices and, to hear what people say, lowered the quality. The Model 7 CDL at $750 retail is a joke, compared to the current Model 70 Featherweight at $650. Winchester made a lot of crap for a long time, making Remington's job a lot easier, but they aren't doing that any more. Meanwhile, I see a lot of younger shooters here learning to like Tikkas (and presumably lusting after their more expensive Sako brethren), and Savages, which give up nothing to a factory Remington's accuracy, but have nice little touches like a good, easily-adjustable, safe trigger system, and a 3-position safety. Love 'em or hate 'em, a Savage or Tikka will shoot with any factory Remington, for less money, with better features. Even Ruger seems to be making a pretty consistent bolt gun now, for a lot less than a Remington with similar features (their increased stainless offerings are a big plus for Ruger IMO).