Interesting observations by Reggie Miles - he's probably summed up the situation very well. I keep trying different guitars in numerous stores and am amazed at the quality of some low to medium priced guitars but very disappointed at higher priced models; I'm still searching for the special one that's going to be an outlet for my retirement cash. Even at £5000 (a Martin I played at the Whitby folk festival) I was sorely disappointed; though it was a gorgeous looking guitar packed with pearl inlays.

Poppagator made the point also:
("I think that my Martin is absolutely great, but then it's a 49-year-old D-18, not one of these new editions on sale today. I'm sure that there is at least some validity to the opinion that they don't make Martins like they used to.") but Martin will always be a good seller because of the long-standing reputation. I certainly would like to buy an old model - at the right price of course. A couple of friends have bought Baby Martins recently (£350 or thereabouts) and they sound CRAP. I played a small bodied French guitar at around £275 in a local store (forgotten the brand name) and it was superb by comparison.