I have an S9, M9, and M40A1 with a second .357 SIG barrel. Up until recently I had an M9A1 until I realized that it was redundant as I can take the slide from my M9 and put it on the M40A1 frame and have an M9A1. That's one of the beauties of the Steyr, they are modular. .40 and .357 SIG barrels fit in both the M357A1 and M40A1, and the slides and frames are interchangeable between old M and newer MA1 (and betwen the S and SA1, I presume). The only limiting factor is that barrels aren't going to swap btween 9mm and .40/.357, but again the frames are the same for both.
The gun shoots with tremendously little recoil and muzzle flip. A very low bore axis makes this possible. If you know anything about the Steyr GB you will know that this aspect of a gun's performance, reduced recol and muzzle flip, has been important to Steyr for a long time. You could even go back to the rotating barrel system of the Steyr-Hahn for that.
Accuracy is good. It's not target pistol but I have found accuracy more than acceptable for a self-defense or combat pistol. Reliability with my guns have been perfect. There were some extraction problems with the guns early on but I think most of that has been cleared up, and if not, SAI (Steyr in the US) has excellent customer service. The gun was designed around the .40 S&W round and when they went to 9mm the extraction problems really reared their head. With my S9 I will occasionally get hit on the top of my head with a shell case, but only when I'm benching the gun, for some reason, but not enough to have the gun serviced.
I find the ergonomics of the gun to be outstanding. The M and S had a safety, a feature that I appreciate that I wish would be avaialble on the A1 versions. The only downside to the safety is that it requires one to reach inside of the triggerguard to de-activate, which is very handy, but could lead to legal arguments of an accidental discharge. Overall I like the safety and hope that it is offered with the SA1 that will be coming out.
The sights do take getting used to, but they can be replaced. I like them.
The gun has suffered in reputation for a number of reasons:
1. lack of support by the parent company. Much of this was caused by jumping from distributor to distributor here in the US. SAI has solved that problem, and their recent move from Cumming, Georgia to Trussville, Alabama shouldn't be confused as more of the same.
2. Earlier extraction problems, now mostly a thing of the past.
3. Lack of accessories and support items. This is improving with time, and with the large number of guns sold by CDNN I can only see this getting better with more guns out there.
4. The sale and re-org of the parent company in Austria (guns are a tiny portion of what they make) has brought new products and attention to the US market to a standstill. On the plus side the new CEO is an avid shooter. Steyr seems to have a difficult time understanding the US market, but news of a possible large frame large caliber gun (presumed to be a .45) shows that they are starting to get it.
5. A since 100% debunked story that Stery sold guns were being used in Iraq to kill US soldiers. Pure garbage.
6. Steyr's marketing efforts in the US have been less than adequate or effective. When their ad campaign did start with the multiple page adds the guns were pretty much already sold off to CDNN.
7. The CDNN buyoff and sale of guns has arguably hurt the value of Steyrs, but I would argue that this is only on a temporary basis. Once the CDNN guns are all gone I don't think anyone expects folks to sell them used based on what they paid for them, but rather based on the retail of new guns which will be closer to $600 than CDNN's $340. Also, CDNN's prices put an awful lot of Steyr's into people's hands, and that is a good thing for a gun that was previously suffering due to being an unknown commodity. It will also encourage aftermarket producers to take the plunge on developing products for the guns.