While I don't own a MIM Fender at the moment, I thought I'd throw in my thoughts.
Years ago I played a "new" MIM P-bass at some guitar shop while on holiday. The pickups were noisy, the pots crackled, the neck was unbelievably bowed and the frets were uneven. The Squire Affinity P-bass sat next to it put it to shame. Understandably, I was one of those "MIM aren't worth the price tag" people. I was also a naive teenager.
Since then I've played a handful of MIM Fenders (guitar and bass) and I've been pleasantly surprised most times (in particular a 50's reissue in Fiesta Red). Just this week I played one of the new standard P-basses which had a better build quality than any other MIM I'd seen, and I'd go as far as to say that it rivalled and beat some MIJ Fenders I'd played. It was a shame that someone at the store hadn't spend a few days tweeking the truss rod as the neck had too much relief to make me tempted to splash out.
I've currently got one of the new Mark Hoppus basses on order (should be here mid-May). I'm not holding overly high expectations but I just hope I don't receive a lemon. Either way, I'll report back in about a month's time...
Bob.