Doug,
About eight years ago I was looking for a lathe and actually had that very lathe on order. I went to see the lathe at their Pennsylvania showroom. Fit and finish was OK, not as good as Jet lathes I've used that were of comparable size. The most disturbing thing is the conglomeration of small things that were wrong. For instance, the dish on the handwheels for the carriage, compound and tailstock would rub my hand during use (and I have relatively small hands). The castings were well painted, but not finished one millimeter further than absolutely necessary. Another hour by the manufacturer with a die grinder and some redesigned handwheels and the lathe wouldn't be bad. THE most disturbing thing was the lack of smoothness of the carriage. It didn't catch because the finish on the ways was rough, it was just "tight feeling".
When I told the salesman about that, he told me the carriage hand to "wear in." Why a carriage would have to wear in is beyond me. New Jet lathes that I've used were silky smooth and they didnt' have to "wear in."
Anyway, my order for that lathe and a new mill (G0757) fell thru because someone forgot to order it after I paid for the machines. My money was eventually returned and I bought a used Bridgeport and a used Nardine 1760E lathe for about $2000 less than the two Grizzly machines cost new. I brought both machines home myself.
The Nardini is heavier, has a wider bed, wider ways and has handwheels that don't try to eat your knuckles during use. The silky smoothness is there, even better than the Jet lathes, more on a level of a nice Sheldon lathe. I don't have any complaint about that lathe, or my milling machine. But...that's me. The Nardini lathe was built for industry, to be used two or three shifts per day, five days per week, fifty or more weeks per year. You get what you pay for.
If I were you, before I put the money down on the Grizzly lathe or any Grizzly product, find a dealer that has a Jet unit in stock and try it for yourself. Unless Jet has changed in the past few years, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Jet doesn't seem to cut corners like Grizzly does, but how you spend your money is your business.
I'm not sure if this falls into the realm of Grizzly bashing, but it is what I found through my own experience. Just because it's new and shiny doesn't mean that it's comfortable to use or isn't a piece of junk.
PS I do have a Grizzly drill press that I am pleased with. It is their G7948. The fit and finish is actually pretty good. I had to have the motor fixed by a local shop after it wouldn't stop shutting off under no load and I had to replace the drill chuck with a Jacobs unit because the runout on the original chuck was excessive (.009+) It would have cost me more to send the motor back to Grizzly for repair under warranty than to bring it to a local shop for repair. It turned out the centrifugal switch was damaged during assembly at the factory. Again, you get what you pay for.