Quote Originally Posted by gatordev View Post
The reason Colt was such a name for so long is because they had the TDP and they had the manufacturing ability to consistently make parts to spec. That was a huge deal for a long time. As CNC machines became better, cheaper, and easier to program, people started copying the TDP, but it still wasn't "THE" spec. This is also why Colt machine guns are worth so much more...they worked out of the box from the factory and didn't require any tinkering, unlike Form 1-ed 3rd party jobbies or those that didn't have the manufacturing prowess.

Nowadays with CNC being so good and everything be computer driven, Colt can't rely on build quality for its sales. It's a shame, because while their AR catalog wasn't very deep, they still made some good stuff. Their SOCOM barrels are absolute shooters.
Another factor was the Vietnam war. During that time Colt poured metric shit tons of R&D into fixing the notorious reliability problems and made another metric shit ton of BTDT true believers. Those guys came home and told everybody to get their hands on a Colt if they wanted an AR (of course a lot of knock-off stuff back then were kits). It also helped that there was no internet where guys can research prices, gain knowledge and form purchasing opinions based on their learnings.