As far as I'm concerned, we hear about the 1 in 1000 that comes up defective.

I've bought two new S&W's in the past couple years, both flawless.

Can't go wrong with an older one either.

I've always believed that the reason we all feel that the older ones were so much better is that the bad eggs from that generation have all either been fixed or destroyed, leaving us with only the good ones and the false belief that every gun made back then was as good as the great one we have.