When I bought my first Colt SAA from the custom shop, it would not even work. When I called them about it they told me that it was not intended to be a shooter, but was an heirloom (!!???). When I sent the gun back for repair, it took them a year to send me a replacement. But, that was a number of years ago and they have improved their SAAs. I have one of their recent guns and it is very nice. But in the time it took Colt to get things worked out, they lost the SAA market to the Italians because they wanted top dollar for guns that were no better and were sometimes a lot worse than what you could get from the folks a Cimmarron and Uberti for a third of the money.
I love my 1938 C prefix Colt 1911. Top quality, lovely finish. But take a look at the 1911s that Colt is currently turning out and compare them to the product currently being turned out by Kimber and the other popular makers and you will see that Colt is not keeping up with the desires of the market. The Colt guns lack the fit and finish, design improvements and range of variation that are common among their competitors.
Another critical issue is that for the last decade or more, Colt has not really seemed to want to sell things on the civilian market. They wanted to focus on military contracts. I used to have a gun store and have worked in and managed others and it was always difficult to get Colts. Back in the 80s I worked for a Colt distributor on the west coast. But when I worked at Sportsman's Warehouse, they did not carry Colts. When I ran a small store in California, I tried to buy Colts for the shop but the distributors never seemed to have them in stock. So what are dealers and buyers supposed to do? They buy what is available.
So, with a history of spotty quality, high prices, lack of product development, limited interest in the commercial market and a relatively poor supply chain, its hardly surprising that Colt has been unable to remain profitable in the face of the loss of their military contracts.
But, as I said before, I hope they are able to turn things around and make the company what it should (could) be.