Mark, first let me say I have been a die hard shimano man, but danged if they are starting to make me mad, along with a ton of other people. I have seen quite a few of the new curados come back with problems. I sold my new curado because I was disappointed in the performance of it. I had it for less than 6 months and the brakes had already started breaking down.
One of the problems i have with shimano is how good the japan models are. The Metanium and the Core are supposed to be somewhat the same but the Core has fewer bearings and less line on the spool...