The only issues I've had with the Menard's boxcars are some coupler issues. Most of those were a fairly simple fix that I had posted about previously. The weight of the Menard's boxcars is significantly more than some other makers, and I've seen no reason to add weight to any of the 60+ Menard's boxcars I have. I've seen recent posts where people profess to have no coupler issues, so perhaps they're taking a little more care with the later offerings as far as QC.
The other factor with Menard's boxcars are the trucks are similar to PW Lionel trucks in design and they have greater rolling resistance than many modern offerings with needle-point axles. This comes into play if you have a very long consist, the rolling resistance of 30 or more Menard's boxcars is probably double what it would be with needle-point axles.
OTOH, where else can you buy new and very close to scale sized boxcars with great looking graphics for less than $20/ea?
