Products
Current product line includes steel-frame pistols, polymer-frame pistols (including the popular Millennium line), revolvers, and law enforcement weapons (submachine guns and rifles), the latter intended for the domestic Brazilian market. The company has a major advantage in that it can manufacture and sell its firearms for generally less than other notable brands due to low labor costs, as well as having the facilities available to build virtually every part themselves. The company also offers a few unique features not found elsewhere, for example while some polymer-frame firearms such as the Glock have no exterior safety features, the Taurus equivalents have a manual safety. Taurus also offers its Security System lockable safety on many models which blocks the gun from firing.
One Taurus claim to fame is the Lifetime Warranty included with every weapon, the owner merely has to return the firearm to the factory or repair center, and any defect will be corrected at no charge. However, Taurus USA will not apply this warranty to Taurus firearms imported by other importers prior to 1984, so owners of older Taurus models should contact the company before shipping their guns in for repairs. Even though guns imported into the US before 1984 were manufactured by Taurus, the company will not honor the warranty on them.
Until sometime in the 1980s, Taurus (early US-imported guns were branded "Taurus Brazil") did not enjoy a favorable reputation among US gun owners. Many saw them as cheap, unreliable, unsafe, and unlikely to last very long. Whether the poor reputation was deserved or was merely the result of American chauvinism in the 1960s and 1970s, is unknown. However, the few Taurus guns actually seen in those days were, indeed, of poor quality, qualifying for the derogatory label "Saturday Night Special". The fact that the company changed the branding on the guns to just "Taurus", along with using a different font and overall markings design, does suggest that they were tying to distance the newer products from the reputation of the earlier ones. An even stronger indication that earlier Taurus guns were of poor quality is the fact that the company does not honor warranties on those earlier guns.
Whether the result of marketing strategies such as changing the markings, and the production of novel guns such as the .410/.45 Judge, or of better manufacturing and quality control procedures, Taurus has managed to distance itself from the "Saturday Night Special" reputation, and their guns are now generally seen as well-made alternatives to more costly brands. Currently, their "Millenium" model, based on their "PT" line, enjoys a particularly good reputation among US gun owners.
Read more about this topic: Taurus (manufacturer)
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