I own a lot of guns and my observation has been that anything from a "major manufacturer" will usually work every time. I suspect that the wide spread of responses to the OP's question mostly reflects the wide spread of firearms the respondents have owned. The real difference comes when you get down into the less expensive (or more cost-effective) handguns. In the under $500 category, it falls off pretty abruptly. I don't rate the CZ75 as *more* reliable than the Wilson 1911, but it cost 1/7 as much. To be honest, I carry the Wilson much and the CZ little but that's because I just love the M1911 platform.
I also own a number of Smith and Wesson revolvers and they all go bang every time you squeeze the trigger. Yes, I know that was not the original question but I maintain that for utter reliability the revolver wins out because it doesn't have the one glaring weakness of the semi-auto -- the magazine. I don't remember the exact figure but when a semi-auto pistol (or rifle for that matter) fails, it's almost always the magazine. Whatever pistol you have, do not cut corners on the magazine. I use only Wilson magazines in my Wilson pistol, but I also use only Wilson magazines in my Norinco M1911.
Buy the best magazines you can afford and if you can't afford the best magazines made, put the pistol on a shelf and save up until you can afford them. Number your magazines with an electropencil or something and if a magazine ever fails to feed -- even once -- take it out of your carry lineup and use it only for practice or just destroy it. The one exception is when it is obvious that the failure was due to ammo. You only get one life and when you're dead you stay dead for a long time.
(However, it also was more expensive than the CZ, so the CZ still wins.)
