As usual, here come the bashers. Most of these people seem unable to actually look at a gun prior to buying it. They accept things that should be warning enough to by-pass them.
I own 14 Taurus firearms. Some so old that they were Interarms imports. I have sent back a grand total of ONE. That one I DELIBERATELY shot loose with a steady diet of +P and +P+ ammunition. The gun was NOT rated for +P ammunition. It still took 5000+ rounds before it began noticeable spitting of lead.
Listening to the usual crap would seem to indicate that I couldn't possible have that many Taurus guns without getting lemon after lemon.
I've had far more Warranty work done on S&W, Sig, Colt, and HK guns. Things like cracked slides on the Sig, S&W revolvers with broken hands on the first shot, cracked forcing cones after one box of .357 Magnum Federal rounds, and timing issues with Model 29s, just to name a few. I don't reload, using only brand name ammunition. S&W replaced a Model 617 after it froze up with less than 100 rounds on it. I had to pay a gunsmith to get the cylinder to release to empty it for return. It took them 90 days to replace it. The HK was a USP, in .45 ACP. It wouldn't group, it patterned. HK replaced the barrel, in six weeks.
There are enough horror stories about ANY brand of gun. Most normal humans accept that mass production, and especially lately, the demand for guns, will give us some poorly operating firearms. What I cannot understand is why anyone who had a problem with a particular gun wouldn't, if they decided that they HAD to have another, have checked it out to see that the issue wouldn't be repeated. Then again, it would appear that some of us just seem to be reject magnets.
Kodiak, it's S&W owners that feel that the old models are the best. Funnily, I was buying guns in the 1960's and 1970's, and the owners back then were saying the same thing, get the older ones. So, unless we have lowered our standards, look for S&W revolvers built before 1950 for the "good ones".
Taurus, like Colt and S&W has had some patches when there seemed to be more issues with the guns.