I have the predecessor, the Ultra Elite. Same parts, old name.
The recoil guide rod assembly can break and when it does, it is $40. I put more than 10K through my gun. The biggest problem was live round stop pipe malfunctions where the round going into the chamber ends up not going there, but the bullet end sticking straight up, caught in the port against the barrel. The aluminum frame broke after 9600 rounds. They replaced it, but that was in the first year. The gun is very accurate. I would not buy another. I would go with one such as a Concealed Carry Officer's layout gun (CCO) that had a commander length barrel and slide, and officer's grip. The longer slide/barrel size really does seem to correspond with better reliability in the 1911s in general. I have never seen an officer's size 1911 that works as well as a full-sized or a commander-sized. I know, everyone has stories of guns that never mess up, but even given those stories, few will be for officer's-sized guns. The shorter slide and reduced mass seems to mess up the timing of the cycle and so there tend to be more malfunctions. Makers such as Kimber have tried to slow down the process by using a two stage spring that works pretty well, but I haven't seen anyone with a setup that works as consistently well as a full-size with a normal single spring. Also, the springs on the smaller guns like officer's-size usually should be replaced sooner because they take more of a beating. There is less spring coil to absorb abuse (simple mechanics of the shortened gun) and so they wear out sooner. Plus, while it is not tremendous, you lose a lot more speed in an officer's size gun than in a commander size, as compared to a full-size. The extra barrel length of a commander size does not seem to hinder concealability for most, but grip size does, hence why I like the CCO layout guns.
I have never heard anyone describe the Ultra CDP as having a longer grip or barrel. I think rdavid must have another model or is confused given the grip is officer's size and the barrel is 3.16", just about the shortest of the production 1911s (although I seem to recall somebody else made one shorter at some point).
