Most of the "dirt" I hear about Savages are from folks who compete in PRS where time is of the essence. The Savage action is not "fast" enough when pushed hard and the other competitors are shooting tuned and tweaked top end Custom stuff. Also there seems to be some feeding and extraction issues when pushed hard/fast and Savages do not hold their resale value like a custom Remington action.
If one is not competing in PRS (against a clock) and shooting for accuracy and doesn't see themselves selling rifles and needing to recover as much investment as possible then Savage is pretty hard to beat. I get everything I want out of my Savage and will buy others as my Savage experience has been fabulous.
But I don't compete so my opinion is just unqualified.
VooDoo