Lol, these replies all remind me of that car commercial...
"is your car reliable?"
"Hell yes its reliable, its got an excellent warranty, 10 years!!!"
"So....you are saying that the warranty is reliable...not the car"
I count 4 or 5 out of 20 or so replies that have had reliability issues. Thats a 20% failure rate!!!!! The fact that RIA has been excellent at fixing them says nothing about the fact that unreliable guns are slipping through QC.
I've had a RIA. It was far from the most reliable 1911 I've had, although not annoyingly or drastically so, just unimpressively so. It also shot about 2' low at 20 yards.
There are plenty of other options out there if you look, and I'd really read between the lines....When people tell you their pistol is awesome because the factory fixed everything wrong with it, no questions asked and no charge, I question the factory's ability to consistently manufacture a design the first time that is 100+ years old and WELL UNDERSTOOD.
The bottom line: With RIA, you do get what you pay for. It was great for me because it was cheap to buy, and I was able to see whether I liked 1911's without dropping $1k+. Many other manufacturers could do well by studying RIA's CS.