I will attempt to not flame, but I see Kimber as a money company vs a gun company. I do not know much about their long gun's, but there 1911's are MIM "metal injection molding" to the max, the mainspring housing is plastic, which I had never seen another mftr do. I believe whole heartedly that a Springfield GI with a good smith will walk all over the kimber for the same money. They at one point had alot of issues with there extractor because the went to an external type vs internal. Eventually they saw a big enough drop in sales, and enough people pissed off about repairs not working that they went back to the original internal extractor type.
Lots of people on here own kimbers, I dont think they are terrible, but I think you could make a better decision with money.
Springfield, Sig GSR, Colt, Dan Wesson Heritage RZ-45, I shoot dan wesson, and they are fricken solid! granted mine is a different model, the Cbob.