At the moment, SIG SAUER is a company that straddles the Atlantic ocean. Most of their manufacturing is done at their Exeter and Newington plants in New Hampshire, but for the older models and some of the more high maintenance designs the guns are still manufactured at their plant in Germany. Guns like the P210, the higher polish X-FIVE and X-SIX series, and the P232 were being made in Germany and imported into the United States for sale, which made them much more expensive to manufacture and added import costs to the price tag. I had the opportunity to chat with Ron Cohen (above), the CEO of SIG SAUER, and one of the details that he let slip was that the company would be producing all of their guns in the US by 2015 . . .
While moving production to the US is one step, Cohen wants to go even further. He’s working with engineers to modernize some of the older designs, such as the P210. As he said in our meeting, while the gun is a brilliant design it was made in an era where surface hardening and stamping sheet metal were cutting edge technologies. Now we can do so much more, and (with the blessing of the original designer of the P210) he’s bringing those designs up to modern specs.
Just as the P226 has evolved over time, Ron wants the P210 to progress as well.
Having owned both a West German 1980’s vintage P226 and a modern Mk25 P226, I’m not worried. SIG has a very good track record of being able to keep those features that define the spirit of the handgun while improving on the internal components as well as the function of the gun. I’d expect no less from their P210 refresh. Especially considering that the current run of P210 handguns clocks in right around $3,000, I’m hoping that the newer, American made target pistols will be much closer to a price point that the average Yank can afford.