heres my take on the 1911 search --
springfield --made in brazil, possible use of MIM parts
kimber --slides and frames casted(forged?) at S&W, MIM parts, the new safety mechanism on kimbers series 2 makes me question the ability to use replacement parts, since its a kimber only design.
chuck daly --made in phillipines, POS, just dont do it
les baer, wilson --good guns, but waaaay over priced, you pay for the name mostly
Colt --IMO is the way to go, they started the 1911 craze and are the standard for all other 1911 builders. yes they have plastic trigger (but so do glocks and other guns) and mainspring housings (these parts dont break), all other parts are forged. the gunsmith i know Prefers to work on colts, and feels they make some of the best internal parts.
Colt had problems for a few years and cut out many of there guns for a few years, this is where many turned to buy from kimber, but colt is back and selling 1991s and they are very good guns out of the box(the colt name will always be worth more than others), and excellent for building up a competitive 1911. (although i dont like the stainless 1991 model)
yes i know you had a colt before that gave you problems, but an action job and tuning would of solved it.
Rock River Arms --lesser known but they make some of the best tuned 1911s(navy marksmanship team thinks so) and so does my gunsmith, id say just as good as les baer and wilson and Cheaper, also make great ARs
MIM parts are less desirable than forged parts, which is what colt uses, MIM parts from my understanding is that if they arent made just right they can be prone to failure in a short amount of time(although rare it does happen). ive also heard that a hand fitted MIM part wont maintain the same tolerances over time(but thats only a Rumor), these were designed to be low cost drop in, no fitting required parts. i some how doubt there are a lot of MIM parts used in highly competitive guns, should you get a kimber or SA i would have a smith replace those parts with some kings or ed brown parts, and have them fitted to the gun.
if you want to shoot competitively then a tuned 1911 is the only way to, yes this requires going to a good gunsmith.
for ME, i bought a caspian 1911 frame, from a gun show got a colt mk4 slide and barrel, colt internal parts, then sent the gun to Kings Gun works, had them build the gun and put in some of there parts. in the end i had a custom fitted gun that was built to MY Specs, and did it for about the same price or even less than a SA or kimber, and IMO i got a better gun.
my next 1911 will be a $500 NIB Colt 1991, sent to a gun smith, $200 worth of custom parts and fitting =$700 Custom gun, costing the same or less than a SA or kimber, and just as good if not better.
IMO -- use what you read here as a baseline to ask questions, ask the competitive 1911 shooters what they feel is the best way to go(they will know more than people who simpley say "go with kimber or SA or colt", this doesnt help you much. be sure to shoot there guns to see if a 1911 is what you want, find out which gun maker they recomend and which gunsmith. --HTH