Colt Broken?  Who knows!

Unless there are some juicy government contracts in the works, I would not be surprised if Colt was sold, or just went belly up.

They pretty much abandoned the civilian market, and there are large numbers of AR and 1911 makers out there now

Colt lost it's Mojo a long time ago.

They have survived on government contracts and their name for so many years they forgot how to be a viable business. FN got a contract to make M4s, the military sidearm is no longer the 1911.

Their consumer line of guns is weak and the stuff they do sell is so expensive they are not competitive.

Recently I decided I wanted a Single Action Army revolver. My choices were buy a used one, a new Colt or a clone. Let's see a new Colt sells for $1700 and are harder to find than a unicorn, a used one sells for $2000+ in nice condition, and a replica sells for $500. I went with the replica. Supposedly it is made exact to a Colt. If it is or not I don't know but I am happy. I would rather have the Colt but not for 3.5 times the price.

A few years ago I wanted a 1911. I bought a Colt Government model because I wanted a Colt since I was a kid. Paid just under $1000 for it. Many options for a good starter 1911 in the $500-700 range.

Want a wheel gun? Well unless you have thousands burning a hole in your pocket you can forget Colt. They don't have any selection either and the price is astronomical. You have to go with an S&W or a Ruger to pay a reasonable amount.

AR15? Well we can't buy new but if we did live in a free state you will see the entry level models start at $800-900. Many choices in other brands for $500-700 that are of the same quality.

Want a semi-auto pistol for carry? Hope you want a 1911 because they do not have much beyond this.

Colt has some serious cost issues which they are probably not going to be able to recover from unless they can break the union and dump the legacy costs.

Colt needs to completely change their business model. Government contracts alone is not a healthy business model. They need to build some revolvers with the old tooling, come up with a striker fired, polymer handgun line and bring the prices in line with other brands.

Most likely Colt will become the Pan Am of the gun industry. They will go out of business and somebody will buy the name and slap it on stuff hoping to cash in on the brand's past.

Old news covered before.  There were layoffs.  They had an injection of cash and consolidated some things.  They aren't going anywhere any time soon.

I've got a buddy who works there, in the custom shop.  I've put out a call to hear from him and what's what.  I'll post here when I hear from him.

Don't expect Colt to build any wheel guns in the near future.  I have read from several sources they scrapped all that tooling years ago.

Even if they could produce them, I doubt they could ever approach the quality of the old guns.  And, the prices would be astronomical!

I have a series 70 Gold Cup that isn't worth much.  Why?  Because it is a Colt.  I would buy a replica long before I would buy a genuine Colt.

Colt's own fault's.

For years they negelected the civilian market and focused heavily on Gov't.

Consumers went elsewhere.

Their own doing , imho

Since it is not worth much, will you take $250?

Sure.  May I also have the privilege of paying you so I can deliver it to you?

drove by colt a few minutes ago...... parking lot was pretty full of cars........ unless they sold the building and another company works out of there. ( sign was still up)

They are there and very much in business.

i just read somewhere that they are amping up hiring for a new contract.... if i can find the link ill post it...

maybe they did what they did to get rid of all the dead weight and crap employees.......

They have massive layoffs every year and then rehire all their layoffs as needed. It's a revolving door of the same people. 

03/03/17: Colt Lays Off Custom Shop Director, Other Employees, Company Rumored Gutted

04/06/17: Colt Announces Jobs and Expansion of Operations



ETA: They don't do good business. I am in manufacturing and know for a fact that they don't pay their bills. Many contract shops in NE either won't do business with them, or have them on zero credit terms. Now that's their vendors, but even employees are treated as expendable. They'd rather lay them off for a month than have to find something to keep them busy in between jobs and have to pay their health insurance. It's absolutely disgusting to see such an old American brand go down the crapper the way they have. They are very much in business, and a sleazy one at that.

$250 is fair for a gun you said is not worth much. I won't make you pay me to deliver it. As a matter of fact I am such a good dude I will pick it and pay cash.

+1  -  There haven't been any additional layoffs since the time Brent was let go.

The CS is doing warranty work for me on a couple of SAAs. They are still there, and backed-up with work.