[Mike'sgooddeal]

"Send them out the door anyway so as to not to take the loss or slow down production. In the slim chance the the customer actually notices or complains we'll fix it for them then."

You meant send the inspectors out the door didn't you?

Oh yeah and Colt needs to own up to the problem and send out notices to the owners. They probably have a pretty good idea which machine/inspectors by now. I mean if its been on the forum twice there are probably a hundred or more that have already been returned and presumably fixed by now...

 

[Mike'sgooddeal]

Unless you knew where to look, you'd never notice it, and it probably wouldn't affect functioning in the least.

That said, you call them, they'll own up to the problem and fix it.

I am glad I read this forum. That's another inspection point that I'll be sure to make before putting any cash down on a blued or stainless Series 70.

I agree it is most likely only a cosmetic flaw. It sounds like Colt will fix the problem. I agree it should be one of the things you glance at when buying a gun.

My opinion is that when you are paying a premium for the Colt name (as rightly pointed out in several other posts), you shouldn't have to have a list of factory defects to look for in a brand new gun. We are not talking about a car here with thousands of parts and computers interacting with everything. We're talking about a gun designed (for the most part) a hundred years ago with what, 60 parts?

Perhaps the dealers ought to be a little more on our side looking for problems in new guns, the same way the car dealer "preps" a car before they sell it. I'm not saying they need to shoot 1000 rounds to see if the frame cracks, but easy to spot blems such as this should (and probably are more than we know) be returned by the dealer prior to the sale.


I started a thread yesterday ( http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=124045 ) asking why Colt appears to be in such dire financial straits. I'm sure stuff like this doesn't exactly instill confidence in the first time buyer.

 

[Mike'sgooddeal]

I understand that dealers are businessmen and every time they have to send a gun back, that either eats $30.00 profit or they have to raise the price a little. For some customers that extra $30.00 will make them walk out the door to some other dealer. I would also imagine that some of the smaller dealers can't afford to have a dozen guns out the door being repaired at the factory...their inventory and overhead costs are just too close to the profit margin.

With that said, there has to be some value to the dealer's reputation. If they told a prospective customer that they had to send back the gun because it wasn't up to "his" standards when he got it and that it has now been double-triple checked. He could also say the gun is now better than the average out the door factory gun, that should mean something to the customer. That is how you win return customers.

I'm not trying to put everything on the dealer's head, but why would an honest person pass along a legitimate flaw (such as failure to get the hammer to fall) to an unsuspecting and perhaps much less knowledgeable customer? What is that dealer willing to hide or not tell you on your next purchase?

 

[Mike'sgooddeal]

It's just kind of amazing how a pistol made in 1918 during wartime production can have better machining than a modern Colt 1911.

I would guess that during wartime production, the workers were very much aware that any mistakes could cost one or a dozen lives. It seems we've all lost that attention to detail, not just Colt and not just firearms production.

It does seem that Colt would be best served by getting their act togather the first time, so they don't need to rely so heavily on CS the second time around.

With that said, let's try to remind ourselves why we like Colts, not dwell too hard on the mistakes of the past, present and (future?).