I used to work in a combination shooting range and gun shop. Some self-appointed genius bought one of the Taurus 1911s; as well, several of the members bought the same gun elsewhere and brought it in to shoot.
The rental Taurus required extensive gunsmithing before it worked at all, and had to be given additional work down the road. I saw several Taurus 1911s people bought elsewhere that required gunsmithing out of the box, and a couple others that had to be sent back to the factory for new barrels: the original barrels' chambers were over-sized.
We had some Taurus revolvers for rent. Most had truly awful triggers out of the box, and by "truly awful," I mean even worse than Ruger triggers. A few people bought them because they were less expensive than other revolvers.
Lots of people were excited about the new Taurus "Judge" .45 Colt/.410 revolver, which I'm sure we'd have rented extensively if we'd been able to get our hands on one.
To give credit where credit's due: Taurus does a good job of advertising. It's been drumming up end user demand far more effectively than it did years ago. Sad to say, it's still producing second and third best guns, and probably always will.
If I were going to buy a basic model 1911, it would probably be a Springfield. It would cost about $250 more than the so-called "equivalent" Taurus, but would at least work out of the box. I'd expect to have to invest some dollars in it for gunsmithing. The difference is that I'd have to pour money into the Taurus just to get it to work at all, whereas I'd pour money into the Springfield to get it to work well. That said", I probably wouldn't buy a basic model 1911 at all, but a more expensive, higher end gun with a properly fitted slide, barrel, and bushing, as well as higher quality action parts that can be slicked up both better and more easily.
