Re: New 1911
I bought a Kimber Custom base full size model, fixed sights, blued in '99 or '00 and started using it exclusively for classes. In fact I put away all my other centerfire pistols and have only been using this one Kimber since then. Eventually I got a .22 conversion for it and put away my other rimfires too.
I averaged around 5 classes per year until '08 using this Kimber, easily put 25k rounds through it if not more.
So far I'm on my 3rd slide stop and 2nd safety, why that stuff keeps breaking on me I have no idea. Usually change the spring out every 2k rounds or so, had it reblued since it was worn down to bare metal around the muzzle and wherever the holster drug against it. sweat + sunscreen + bare steel = INSTANT RUST!
Sometime around '03 (?) I was in a class with John Jardine (the Valtro guy) and he commented that I had the worst running 1911 he had seen in a long time. I was awesome at malfunction drills because mine would fail to extract or double feed or stove pipe or something a couple times an hour (I have 16 mags I rotate through so it wasn't bad mags). He took it and did some basic clean up work and after that it's run pretty flawlessly using those same mags which are a mix of blued and stainless 'shooting star' and wilsons.
I finally got him to install one of his hook sights on it in '07 and while picking it up at his place he showed me a bucket of broken Kimber slides. Apparently they started getting pretty random on the quality of their metal and if you get a good one it runs forever, if you get a crap one it will crack. He went on about slides being too hard and cracking and inferior/inconsistent metal being used, etc. If I hadn't seen that bucket of junk I would be skeptical too. I must have a good one since it's still together but buying a new one seems like it would be a crap shoot at this point.
I still trust mine, it's my "go to" gun, but it's had the bugs shaken out of it. If I had to buy new... tough call.
Here is where it sits most days now, resting on it's own fluffy bunny pillow: