No Rik, I don't have a grudge at all, I'm just reporting the facts. You may not like them, and you may want to ignore it. The fact is that 20% of my business right now is fixing defects on the Kimbers. Whether it is bad slide stops, which they admit are a problem, too tight chambers, which they admit happen, or broken MIM parts. I know two Kimber master dealers who have had many problems with Kimber and one refuses to stock or sell the polymer model anymore because every one they sold was returned for repair. There are many hundreds of thousands more Springfields and Colts out there, and they have their lemons too, but when one spends $800+ on some of the Kimber models and has problems or parts breakage and the factory gives them a hard time or doesn't fix it, that's wrong. I don't care who does it. I have had my go rounds with Colt too many times to mention, but they always stood behind their screw ups. I also shoot allot of matches and run a IDPA club locally and see many Kimbers jam or malfunction. I see many Colts and Springfields puke too. My point is that the Kimber is not the miracle 1911 that you or the gunwriters make them to be.
As for the low number of problems you cite, there is a reason for that. Denial. You see it on these pages. People saying "It ONLY jammed twice out of a hundred rounds". People do not want to admit they bought a lemon. I'd say 90-95% of the guns Kimber sells are OK, but the other 5-10% aren't, and that is too much when one charges the price they do and make the claims they do. They hold themselves to a higher standard, so they should live by it.
I'm glad you like your Kimber and they work fine for you, point is there are many on here and many I know that haven't been so lucky and when you try to deny it or call their honesty into question, you insult them and yourself. Any gun, Kimber, Colt, Springfield, or whoever, that jams out of the box or breaks parts is a piece of crap. I don't care who makes it.
You keep shooting your Kimber, I'll keep shooting my Springfields, Colts and Caspians. So long as they keep going bang every time and hit the target, that's all that matters.
Brian