Taurus wants to get big and they ain’t goin’ home. The Brazilian-based gunmaker has ambitious plans to re-brand and expand their North American ops. Taurus’s box-fresh President and CEO Mark Kresser’s the Man. He’s promising new products, better customer relations and higher quality. True story: Kresser’s aware that Taurus’s rep needs a reset. He’s asking gun guys and gals for one thing and one thing only as he pulls on the wheel of the Taurus-shaped aircraft carrier . . .

Time. Kresser knows that improving the company’s products and service isn’t going to happen overnight. Despite his hunger for rapidly recognizable change, Kresser also realizes that it will take time for public perceptions to catch up with the new reality he’s fashioning for Taurus.

File this one under “hopeful signs”: Kresser began his career in the firearms industry as a Remington Shooting School instructor. Then Beretta snatched him away for a sales job. Since then Kressler’s kept up his shooting proficiency while working for SIG Arms, Mossberg and Traditions Firearms. And now . . . Taurus.

As a salesman and marketing maven, Kresser knows that all branding starts with the product. Kresser is dedicated to continuous product improvement and “making a better gun today than we did yesterday.” No really.

Throughout our entire organization, we are focused on continuous improvement… regardless of what process, regardless of what position or what department we have within our organization.

At the same time that Kresser’s working on Taurus’s corporate culture, he’s operating on the time-tested principle that the customer is king.

We’re listening to our customer more today than we did yesterday, paying attention to our customer and we’re servicing our customer today better than yesterday.

Kresser reckons the gunmaker will be rocking the gun world by the next SHOT Show in January. He was understandably cagey about details, hinting at some significant new products that will help raise the company’s profile.

We’re going to bring some new thinking to the industry and make people question why they didn’t think of that first…I think we’ve got some things that are really going to change the way people think about firearms.

Look out world? Look out gun company owners. Kresser admits that Taurus is on the prowl for new acquisitions. The gunmaker’s main man in North America promised that any additions to the corporate portfolio will complement the existing product line.

Modern home defense black sporting rifles? Shotguns? Kresser won’t say. But he will say that Taurus is going places. And he knows that satisfied, engaged, surprised and delighted customers are the only ones who can take them there. Watch this space.

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93 COMMENTS

  1. This fits exactly with what I saw of him on the Con floor. One of his first questions was “Are you familiar with Taurus and what can we do to make them more attractive to you?” I had to explain that I am a gun rights nut more than a gun nut, but he certainly made all the right noises. He’s the one that answered my questions on when Taurus was going to start importing their rifles.

  2. So Taurus is gonna try to buy, and start running already successful gunmakers….oh…..great…..
    At least it’ll give Freedom Group another outfit to play race-to-the-bottom with.

  3. If they want to win me over, all they have to do is make their guns as good on the inside, as the outside, and start using more quality control and less customer service repair.

  4. I wish him luck, he has a long hard road ahead of him but I look forward to having more quality in the marketplace.

  5. I have always thought that Taurus guns were built to a price point. It will be interesting to see if that can be maintained while increasing build quality. Customer service issues are more easily resolved when the volume of service required goes down.

  6. I was wondering if something was up. I was looking at the list of Taurus pistols on the California Roster just last night and noticed that the vast majority have dropped off. In fact, it’s entire line of California legal handguns is only one page long. The PT100 series is history, as is the 24/7 line. Making room for new models? This article supports such a supposition.

  7. Sales talk. He’s got the things people want to hear down pat “quality, customer service, innovation”. We shall see.

  8. OK, here’s the hard truth about quality in firearms:

    You can have quality firearms, or you can have cheap firearms. Pick one.

    The problem for the US firearms market is that gun owners don’t seem to understand that quality costs money, and it isn’t just for better steel, tooling or machines. A big chunk of what makes a gun cost money is paying for skill in the people operating machines and tools.

    Thanks to the Harvard MBA mentality of US corporate management, the prevailing management doctrine in US manufacturing has been “Get labor costs down, even if it results in our shipping polished turds in a decorative box.” This is why so much manufacturing has been pushed off-shore: Management’s obsession with “making it as cheaply as possible.”

    So my test for this type of turn-around promise would be this: What are the intended price points? eg, If they’re seeking to ship a semi-automatic handgun in a 9mm or larger cartridge for less than $500 retail, I don’t need to ask what their detailed plans are, because they don’t involve actual quality. Or ask about a revolver: If a company tells me that they’re going to ship a medium-framed DA revolver for less than $650, again, I don’t need to ask too many more questions.

    • I think it’s more of a new twist on the old race car triad: cheap, accurate, reliable. Now pick any two. But your points about how price works into the equation are spot-on.

      • And then there’s that side of the argument, too. Ruger’s wheelguns are excellent examples of the breed, IMHO.

      • Yes, it lacks the level of quality that I’d want in a handgun.

        That’s not to say that Ruger doesn’t know how to do quality. I find their top-end revolvers (the Redhawks, Vaquero’s, Bisley’s) to be very good.

        The SP101? Eh. It’s better than some others, but it’s not up to where S&W is.

        • A Ruger SP101 will go bang every time. That’s more than I can say for a Taurus. I’d be happy with Taurus if they could just give the public a gun that worked. People of limited means need guns too.

          Shrink the product line. Eliminate the blingy finishes, and just make a revolver with a cylinder that won’t bind, and chambers that line up with the bore. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Charter seems to be managing it these days. And that’s with American labor. I wouldn’t call them fine firearms, but they are quality firearms. If Charter can do it, Taurus can do it, and I would welcome another source of inexpensive and reliable handguns on the market.

          If.

        • S&W’s top models are great guns or so I’ve heard. Are you stating that S&W revolvers across the board are all better quality than the SP101? Really? S&W quality hasn’t been decreasing the past few years while their prices keep increasing? I have friends who have had problems with their S&W revolvers and semis the past few years. Those who want even more out the SP101 can easily improve the trigger. Overall, most people (yourself excluded) describe the SP101 as a reliable and accurate gun, built like a tank, and one of the best ‘gems’ in the Ruger line.

      • I was actually thinking about Ruger while reading this article. Made me think of their redesigns, excellent pricing, and better than average quality. It just made me think that Taurus is gonna forge a new path just like them. I can’t say that would upset me at all. I shoot very well with Ruger’s products and I have plenty of money left over to put on another Ruger or on more lead to throw down range. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Taurus!

    • I understand quality costs. But I purchased 2 Rock Island Armory 1911’s for the price of one Kimber. Both were in the lower $300.00 range and I’m happy with both. Like many of us right now money is tight.

    • I have read many articles on quality control, they all have their issues, Colt, S&W, Sig,even Glock, they are in business to sell firearms and keep their factories staffed, and the only way to do that is price.

  9. Without being too harsh, Taurus firearms are not attractive to me because of mediocre quality. It has been literally *decades* since I seriously considered buying one, because I’m not sure they’re going to last long enough to be worth my money.

    They seem to introduce new designs frequently, without perfecting them before launch.

  10. I don’t plan on purchasing a Taurus product until either they move out of Brazil or Brazil’s laws change.

  12. I prefer American guns and Brazilian coffee. The other way around would be in poor taste, literally and figuratively.

  13. It would take years of repeatedly hearing good stories about quality control and customer service improving for me to consider buying a Taurus. Why should I risk my safety and money when there are many other and less risky choices? If the new boss is serious I think he needs to bring in new staff who will crack the whip and fire some lazy employees.

  14. My FUD-meter is pegging the scale reading these comments here.

    Taurus need only do two things to ensure an improvement in their image. One is to change model names and jack up their prices $200 per firearm. Second, ensure some popular action hero uses a Taurus brand gun in the next pseudo-military or police action flick. Between a higher market price and the adoration of the tacti-cool COD market, they’ll be on top of the gun business in no time flat.

    I own a Taurus PT99 made before I was born which has never failed due to firearm-related issues. I must in honest discourse mention that it failed to fire twice shooting a box of bargain-basement 200 round bulk Remington ammo. That stuff was so awful Tulammo would be an improvement. There’s no quality issue with my Taurus weapon, and the issues ive seen them have are stuff which equally affects Glocks, S&W’s and other so called ‘ quality’ brands. Even Glock has recalls.

    I chalk up the negative brand rep to their low price , period. It is scientifically documented that people will feel better about a higher priced purchase than if the same product was sold at a lower price. A psychologist completed a study where a lemonade stand was set up ,and the same batch of lemonade was sold to people at different prices, after which the customers were questioned about the taste. People who paid more reported a better taste than the people who paid less for the same exact batch.

    In the gun world , if a Glock jams the response is either disbelief -“Glocks don’t jam, your doing something wrong”.
    0r
    “Send it in, they’re not perfect”.
    If a HK breaks, same response. “Send it in and they’ll make it right”.
    If a Taurus breaks :

    “OMG WHY DID YOU BUY IT!!! ITS CRAP!!. Don’t send it into the factory, mail it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for safe disposal!Youd be better off carrying a baseball bat than a TAURUS!!My sister’s boyfriends mother’s husband’s friend who dated my cousin’s BFF had a stovepipe with theirs. ”

    If one reads this post thinking Taurus firearms are complete garbage,research what the Brazilian police & special forces units like BOPE carry when they track down drug gangs in those rabbit warren favelas in Rio. Here’s a hint;they don’t use HKs down there .

    • I’ll second that. I bought a Taurus for my daughter, and to date no quality issues. And it came with 2 magazines and a lifetime warranty. I have a kimber. It came with one magazine (that I had to replace because of feeding issues) and a one year warranty. It cost double what the Taurus cost and had to be sent back because it was a jam-o-matic. The feed ramp was not polished–in fact it was covered with the KimPro finish. It became reliable after 1000 rounds down the pipe. Then I hear about RIAs from the Phillipines that are reliable, Bersas from South America that are reliable, and Springfields from Croatia that have excellent reputations. (My Croatian made XD has never had a failure!) Then I look at the Ruger pocket pistols, and not one has a decent trigger. Kahrs, a high end product, are infamous for reliability issues and poor triggers.
      So why would I NOT buy another Taurus? So what if it doesn’t last a lifetime–they’ll give me a brand new one if it doesn’t. Or at its price point of around $350-$400, I can go buy three of them for the cost of a new 1911.

      • Jerry Hagan

        I received my PT738 from Taurus repair yesterday and I shot 21rounds of Federal Hydra Shock through it and on about the 18th round the firing pin didn’t reset I pulled the trigger as fast as I could to see if it was going to jam Today I’m having to send the handgun back to Taurus they have had the gun longer than I have sure wish I had spent that extra $100.00 and bought that RUGER LCP !!!! If you can only afford one handgun for self defense don’t buy a Taurus I owned a PT92 about 20 years ago and had similar problems so I was torn when I bought this Taurus and now they have had it in the shop longer than I have had it Lifetime Warranty doesn’t mean much if the Manufacturer keeps the firearm longer than you do

    • So I guess I must have just imagined the Taurus .357 my friend had to send back after her first cylinder. The list of things they repaired made it sound like a shot-out old gun. They obviously were able to find the issues once it was returned to them. But they clearly did not look at it before it left. After that, how can you really trust a gun again? Or a brand?

    • My Taurus (pt140) and my Glock (22) do the same thing. Bang every single time I pull the trigger over thousands of rounds.

      I bought the Taurus because on here the comments seemed to be “I hate Taurus but I never owned one” and “I own a Taurus and I love it.”

  15. I bought an Astra A-100 15 years ago and thousands of rounds later it’s still reliable and accurate. Didn’t cost much at the time. I compared it to Taurus and I thought it had a better finish than their guns.

  16. I’m more a fan of handguns which appreciate in value rather than depreciate so I try to stick with other brands, but I do have a few Taurus’. I would say that on the revolver side their quality is definitely not that of a S&W in some of the more hoity toity metrics of trigger smoothness and even consistency from one to another, BUT for a defensive gun, they are more than adequate. I think Taurus “j-frame” style revolvers are a sleeper in the gun world right now, they are materially worth more than their price point (probably due to the negative rep of the Taurus of years past). Also the PT145 Millennium Pro is a great little piece. I’ve put somewhere between 1200-1500 rounds through it according to my brass bucket, factory and reloads. It’s plenty reliable and accurate for a compact plastic .45 acp. Definitely worth more than the 250 bucks I paid for it and definitely worth the ~$350 they are going for now. Do all of the ejected rounds fall in the same place? Nope, but whatever, it’s an economy gun.
    Heck, they throw in about half of a gallon of “free” cosmoline with every new Taurus purchase too 😉 . (I’ve seen a few presumed defective Taurus’ which were just not de-cosmolined before being used).

  17. I would not hesitate to pick up another Rossi/Taurus levergun over a Marlin today. The finish on my Rio Grande 30-30 makes my Remlin look like a backyard operation and it came in at half the price.

  18. It seems that consistent quality in the gun industry is elusive. I read firearm blogs and websites and it seems that some people will get great stuff and others get lemons. I have had inexpensive guns that were great ( Nylon 66 and Ruger 10-22 ) and expensive guns that were questionable ( Marlin 39A ). Some expensive guns were great ( Colt Peacemaker ). I think there are a lot of great guns designs out there, but a lot of inconsistent operations affecting erratic quality.

  19. I bought a PT145 MilPro about 5 years ago. I have 5000+ rounds through it and have never experienced an issue.

    It failed to feed a couple times on my wife. As did my FN Five-seveN. And my Colt 1911. She has some pretty dainty wrists.

    I have bought a couple tauruses since then. Not really loving them as I love my 145, but I have yet to experience a reason not to buy them.

    I have heard many stories, but no experiences of anything bad.
    YMMV

    I look forward to seeing what they will produce in the future. I really hope to see some rifles or shotguns.

  20. I’ve never had a problem with any taurus weapon I’ve ever purchased.

    I’ve owned three of their .357s over the years,
    one of their snubby .38s,
    and a tcp,
    None of which have given me any problems.

  21. I own a Taurus PT92 which was purchased way back in ’92 at a Wal-Mart. The Taurus 92 has close to 10K rounds through it without problems. This purchase was about the time new Beretta 92 owners were having to count rounds before their slides would fall off or some-such disaster. Taurus had quality once but seems to have lost it just often enough to damage their reputation. It is possible for Taurus to regain quality but rebuilding a good reputation will take time.

  22. I have a 44 Mag and was not only surprised at the smoothness of the action right out of the box, but the accuracy with all the different ammo I tried. I was very impressed and glad I chose the Taurus.

  23. I’ll give another thumbs up. I own just one, a .17HMR revolver. It’s high quality all the way.

  24. My PT92 has served me faithfully since 1988. It is by far my favorite gun. It has even tolerated my first attempts at reloading. Don’t know if it makes a difference, but it is a Brazilian-made firearm, not one of the new Miami pieces.

  25. I purchased the Taurus PT140 Millenium Pro (.40 S&W) compact semi-automatic pistol in stainless steel. I have at least 1000 rounds through it and the only two failures (I believe they were failures to eject) were with inexpensive reload ammo that I purchased at a range. I have run several different types of factory ammo through it and it eats all of them without any trouble.

    There was a problem with the sights. Everyone that shot it said it shot low. I returned it to Taurus. It took them roughly three or four weeks to repair but repair it they did and then they shipped it overnight to get it back to me promptly. They repair sheet indicated that one of the sights was too low and they replaced it. Then even included the target that they shot to verify that “point of impact” was indeed “point of aim”.

    While I didn’t like the defect of course, they handled it responsibly and I enjoy the pistol. Now if they would just manufacture all of their products in the U.S. I would have a difficult time purchasing from any other manufacturer.

  26. Another happy Taurus owner here. I have a Model 62 Carbine and a PT-1911. Both have been great reliable guns. The only problem I had was the off-side of the ambi-safety on the 1911 kept working itself loose. I didn’t like the ambi anyway so I installed a strong side safety and went on my merry way.

    Maybe with this new fella in charge they’ll pay more attention to little things like that.

  27. Don Nace
    In Feb., 2012, I bought a brand new Taurus Millenium Pro PT145. Right out of the box this gun had serious problems. Neither the dealer or I ever fired the gun because we felt the condition of the gun was dangerous. Twice the dealer sent the gun to Taurus for repair. Each time the gun came back it still had the original problems and each time Taurus added even more problems to the gun. Have been trying to get a refund of my money from Taurus but so far I have received no response from Taurus. Apparently Taurus does not stand behind their products. I would never buy another Taurus product.
    LikeUnlike · · Sunday at 3:01pm

  29. Don Nace Original problem: With a fully loaded magazine (10 rounds) in the gun the slide can be easily pulled back halfway, but then it is a real struggle to pull the slide the rest of the way back. When I can get the slide all the way back and then release it the slide will fly forward and will load the top round in the magazine. After working the slide again and ejecting that round I notice there is a 2 to 3mm wide indentation in the case of the round. With 9 rounds left in the magazine the slide will pull all the way back easily. After ejecting the round there is a scratch on the case of the round. The slide will pull back easily with eight rounds left in the magazine and the cases will be lightly scratched or unscratched. This happens with both magazines that came with the gun. Because of this problem I never fired the gun. Took the gun back to the dealer and he sent it, with a letter explaining the problem, back to Taurus. A few days later the gun came back to the dealer. Taurus said the barel and something else were replaced because the parts were damaged. Don’t know how they could be damaged becasue the gun had never been fired. And the gun still had the original problem of the slide being hard to pull back. Again the dealer sent the gun back to Taurus with a letter of explanation. A few days later the gun came back to the dealer. The gun still had the problem with the slide. This time, for some reason unknown to me, Taurus had put a new extractor/ejector on the gun. Now the slide is still very difficult to work and the gun will no longer eject rounds after working the slide. So Taurus not only did not fix the original problem with the gun – they actually increased the problems the gun has. I no longer want one of these guns and the dealer and I are trying to get a refund of my money from Taurus. No response from Taurus yet. This has gone on for a couple of monts. I even sent a letter to the President of Taurus about all of this and have not received any reply from him.Yesterday at 1:23pm · LikeUnlike.

    • Seems to me you had a problem with your magazine spring being too tight, and they’ve fixed everything nut.

      • I think you may be right about the problem being with the magazines. Have read that there have been a lot of problems with the PT145 magazines. After two trips back to Taurus for repair the gun is so screwed up now that different magazines are not going to help it.

  30. Don Nace Thanks, but I don’t trust Taurus. I do not want another Taurus handgun. I should have bought another Glock. If Taurus doesn’t do something soon, I am going to file a complaint with our state’s Attorney Gerneral division of Consumer Fraud and Protection

  31. Here is what I think Taurus and Kresser are going to do about Taurus junk guns and the non exisistent repair of Taurus junk products – Taurus and Kresser are going to do nothing. They are going to go right on taking a customer’s money and leaving him with nothing but a paperweight.

    • I’ll keep an open mind, but they’ve got to upgrade their quality significantly.

      The plus on Taurus is that they’ll pursue interesting designs.

      The obvious minus is that when their guns are bad, they’re irredeemably bad.
      Taurus guns are too much of a risk at this point.

  33. I have owned a PT 1911 SS for 4 years now and it is my favorite pistol with well over 5,000 rounds. My second Taurus three years ago is another .45 ACP chambered pistol, the PT 145. Both are very accurate and dependable with the PT 145 packing a lot of punch in a compact handgun.

  34. I am among the gun culture 2.0 crowd. For me, the problem with Taurus is that they don’t have anything unique and interesting. S&W has the M&P line. Springfield has the XDm. Beretta has the PX4 Storm. Ruger has the Blackhawk, Redhawk, 22/45. Taurus… they’ve got things that every other company has. Nothing all that unique or “best-in-class.” Additionally, their designs aren’t all that attractive to look at. I believe “ugly” is the term. The only thing that Taurus has which interests me is the TCP, which is the only P3AT look-alike I know of whose slide comes in black stainless. Otherwise… a big “meh” company with no products on my list of wants.

    • You forgot the Taurus Judge which, love it or hate it, has revitalized the .410 round and created a new type of revolver which S&W wound up copying.

      It also created a whole new forum trolling method in which you can go to any firearm forum and ask “Is the Judge loaded with 410 a good home defense gun?” and watch the fur fly!

      Granted, it may not be as exciting as an XDm or what have you but still, it was unique to them.

  35. Bud’s Gun Shop lists the following Ruger revolvers for less than $500:

    1.) LCR .38 Spcl–$402
    2.) LCR .357–$456
    3.) SP101 .38 Spcl–$477
    4.) Sp101 .357–$488

    They also offer a “no lock” S&W 442 for $364 (?!)

    Taurus is competing against two very efficient North American gun makers
    who maintain a solid reputation for customer service.

    I wish Mark Kresser the very best of luck; bringing a Taurus of similar price and build quality to market is going to be a daunting challenge.

  36. I once had a Taurus .22, which was very accurate and I liked it a lot, but after the firing pin broke FOR THE THIRD TIME I got rid of it.

  37. If you are buying a taurus because you can not afford a new high quality gun, maybe you should consider a used high quality gun. I am not sure but think taurus is spanish lingo for junk.

  38. I have owned or still own a 9mm Millenium Pro, a .40 cal 24/7, a .38 snubbie, a .357 Tracker, a PT 809, a Circuit Judge and a .380 TCP. Half of those have well over 1,000 rounds through them. The rest have at least over 100. I have owned half of them for over 5 years and carry a couple them on a daily basis. I have never had a single failure on any of them with any type of ammo. I have found that most Taurus bashers are not Taurus owners, just card carrying members of the Official Gun Snob Club.

    I will continue to buy Taurus because it is the best value in the gun market today. And yes, I own other brands also, but none that I would consider better than any of my Taurus guns.

  39. We’ll see. If they actually start fixing problem firearms instead of playing games, it’ll be a big step forward.

    Apparently the wheels started wobbling badly the last 2-3 years, from what I’ve heard; it’s generally been guns bought or returned for service in that period that the real problems began.

  40. So, does this mean that I just hang on to my NEW POS 941 until they get it together. Then if that happens, I can send it in again for repair?
    Sincerely,
    C.B. Clement

  41. I dont know what all the jabber is about, I own 4 Taurus pistols, had trouble with the
    PT22 . Customer service couldn’t have been any better.
    When I received my PT 24/7 OSS there was a problem with what I ordered and what I received but they delivered and I am extremely pleased with the guns.

  42. When they can build a revolver center pin that can hold up to. 357, I’ll believe it.

  43. I don’t know about you, but as a new, first-time gun buyer, I am extremely happy with my PT 1911 AR. For the money, it’s a champ.

  44. had a 605 for many trouble free years.
    Looking forward to some new products, not just small 9mm, 1911 and ARs.
    How about a big bore top break revolver? high capacity pistol in 7.62×25?
    Bolt gun in 7.62×39, 303 british, 300 blk.
    A modern home defence gun

  45. Well, I’ve still got that junk 941 and no one from Taurus has bothered to contact me, and they DO have my contact info.
    I keep it to show others the folly of buying a NEW Taurus product.

  46. Been waiting for my model 608 revolver from them for 9 weeks with no firm date as to when I will get it. Sent in for repair, they had all my contact info, never got a work order number, never got a single phone call from Taurus. This crap about them servicing their customers better today then they were yesterday is just that, crap. 1st and last Taurus I’m buying and I’m telling all my gun buddies my experience and to NOT BUY Taurus.

  47. Higher quality control is right. Is there any reason why a brand new pistol, just out of the box, should have to be mailed back to Taurus twice? Thing hasn’t even been fired! Yes, they’ll replace the parts, but they’ll also screw something else up along the way. Want to improve customer relations? You need to have higher quality control. When things are “fixed” the whole pistol needs to be examined BEFORE being shipped back to the customer.

  48. Bring more of the company manufacturing to the US. The quality of Taurus will automatically improve. Go after Law Enforcement and Military contracts with well made pistols and rifles. For goodness sakes please dont make another AR rifle!
    Ticklicker, Kentucky

  49. The CT-30 rifle needs to be manufactured in the United States.
    This is a very good Urban Police Weapon if the bugs are worked out.
    Ticklicker, Ky

  51. My 2 cents…

    I’ve owned a Taurus PT92 for over 10 years and enough rounds I have no idea the count. Never once have I had a problem. Never. So when I was shopping for a small carry gun I had zero reservations about going with a Taurus, and chose the PT145. Once again, I’ve encountered zero problems with this gun and I feed all sorts of cheap ammo through it.
    I suspect the vast majority of the Taurus haters here have never owned one. I’ll stick with what has worked.

  52. I’ve owned a Taurus .44 special (4″ barrel) that I bought new about 16 years ago. I’ve put at least 1,600 rounds through it, including periodically some hot self-defense loads by Cor-Bon. Never had a single misfire, and it seems to be an accurate gun (And I don’t do a lot of target practice). Is my gun junk? If you’re buying a car for resale (and reliability) potential you buy Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, or Lexus. Why would I NOT buy German “engineered” cars like Porsche or Mercedes despite their relatively good resale? Because they have poor reliability ratings (who wants their car in the shop all the time) talk to the mechanics that work on them and read Consumer reports. I also know something about guitars. Martin guitars, for example, have a well-known reputation for tonal quality, until you fret it farther up the neck and end up with off-pitch notes due to bowing of the neck. The truth is that until they finally started putting truss-rods in the neck (to keep the neck straight enough) especially on 12-strings, I wouldn’t have purchased one for any reason. Sure the guitar has a name attached to it, and now I own one since they fixed the problem. But even after all this talking, you can still get a lemon from the Japanese manufacturers. And you might get a BMW that only requires regular care and still lasts 400,000 miles or more (my mother had one with 459,000 miles, no bull.) But I still wouldn’t buy one today. The second BMW she bought new (I happened to be visiting at the time of purchase) had to have the complete steering column replaced less than two weeks later. Go figure. It appears that in the final analysis, it’s a throw of the dice. Quality control obviously is number one. But sometimes parts bust. Not all the atoms are always lined up so perfectly. Recently an apparently experienced gun shop owner cussed Glock handguns as being plastic crap and too dangerous to shoot. That surprised me. If Glocks are just plastic crap, how have they made such an apparently great reputation? Where’s the truth? Anyway, if it does work well after a fair amount of driving or firing keep it.

  53. I recommend you avoid TAURUS pistols.

    Spare parts on the secondary market is basically non-existent.

    I called their customer service, and was laughed at
    when inquiring about my PT809 pistol.
    I called to ask for firing pin assembly:
    part #1: 1.25 — Firing Pin Block Axle
    part #2: 1.11 — Firing Pin Spring
    part #3: 1.12 — Firing Pin
    They told me the 3 parts only cost $2 ~ $4 per part.
    Yet they will NOT sell to the public.
    They said this is “too complicated,” etc.
    WTF? people tear down their guns all the time
    so they know what’s wrong with their pistols.

    They also claimed this is a “controlled part.”
    Yet, there is no serial number anywhere, no
    registration, nor anything. Firing pins are freely
    sold in Ebay, numrich, midway, e-gun parts, etc.

    TAURUS, you lying useless garbage.
    I will never buy your guns, anymore!!

    Email me at juntak5 at yahoo.com for complete
    details. If you ever think of buying a TAURUS,
    then do NOT buy their guns. They are TRASH.
    And they treat their customers as trash, too.
    I can also send pictures of broken parts from my pistol.

    — Juntak

  57. The quality control and customer service seems to have mixed reviews (when it comes to gun enthusiasts). I will search for different options, after reading this article. Thanks to all, of whom contributed to the comments section. I truly appreciate it.

  58. Have owned many guns including Taurus,glock,kimber and Beretta.
    And Taurus is a good gun, some of them don’t look the greatest but for a gun that will shoot 500 rounds + you can’t complain.
    And for the Guy who said a gun that isn’t 500$ or more isn’t quality needs to do some research cause glock, and Beretta are the two most reliable weapons on the market and both are under 600$.
    You take apart a Taurus the inside is no different than most double action pistol, but has more features like the double strike.
    And will shoot any ammo. The only down fall I’ve seen is their is no after market upgrades

  59. The positive and negative comments make Taurus firearms, identical to opening a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.-Forrest Gump

  60. I purchased a Taurus 941 this fall and just went to the range today 3/13/15.. It was a big disappointment.
    very hard trigger pull and the cylinder was not indexing properly. you had to index it by hand to get a shot off.

  61. Blah Blah Blah…and the dead horse continues to get beaten. The fact of the matter is, we do not live in a perfect world, and nothing, be it an automobile or firearm, is going to be perfect. On a long enough timeline EVERYTHING will fail eventually. It also means that even though something is made by a “High End” manufacturer, does not make it impervious to failure, design or quality control issues.

    I purchase a new Beretta Nano last year. I was looking for a CC semi auto and it fit the bill. Compact, designed very nicely and felt great. After my first range trip, I logged down a 30% failure rate after 250 rounds of quality ammo. I sent it in to Beretta and had in back in about 10 days. The work order noted a replaced extractor, barrel, recoil spring, firing pin and it still had a 8% failure rate…really? Not what I would expect for $450 otd. I also had a very frustrating experience with a Beretta model 92 as well….another totally worthless firearm. Needless to say, Beretta is not on my top 10 list even though they are a 500 year old company and considered “High End” by many. Some have had no issues with their nano’s or models 92’s…obviously a QC issue. Hell, I have a $150 Hi-Point C9 that runs better than my Berettas did…truth be told! I also have an $800 Kimber Solo 9MM and it’s the most picky firearm I have…will only shoot 124gr ammo.

    My point…no manufacturer is perfect. All will cut corners somewhere if it means a better bottom line, whether it be in materials, design or customer service. The price paid does not necessarily reflect quality or longevity. I just purchased a second Taurus to add to my collection, a PT111 G2 9MM….picked it up at Sportsman’s Warehouse on sale for $199. Looks great and shoots even better…hands down 10X better than my KelTec PF9, which I paid nearly $300 for when it first hit the market. Taurus has been around since 1941, so they must be doing something right.

  62. I HAD a Taurus for eight days, had to send it in for service. That was over a year ago and I still don’t have it back. Think I’ll buy another one ????

  63. I just bought 2 new Taurus 709 slim. (Because they were so cheap). Both have problems. One fails to feed, and the other will not return to battery. Never seen that before, I was baffled. It’s brand new. Don’t they test fire these things before shipping?

    Sent it back to taurus, they’ve had it a week now. From what I’ve read, I may never see it again.

    I’m pretty pissed, and will never buy a taurus product. Not impressed.

    • Yep I agree Tuarus is shit. Get out of the gun business Taurus you can’t hang with the big dogs.

  64. I’m Thinking Taurus….so here we are 9-17 and still hearing wide range opinions on quality,, etc. Taurus has some guns that are somewhat different than run-of -the-mill, i.e. the Judge. The Tracker 5 round 44Mag seems good too. Where is the quality on their arms at this date?? I have Ruger, Colt, Charter, S&W and have had good results with all, but my pocketbook shivers at Kimber, EdBrown, etc. Any Suggestions are appreciated. Thank you, Ron

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