I have compared The Highway 1 (Made In USA ! ) to my other USA-Made Fender Strats- I have owned and still own the following:

Currenlty Own:

                        1976 Fender Stratocaster, Natural Ash, Micro-Tilt Neck

                       1988 Fender American Standard Strat, Stock Pickups, Hardware 3-Tone Sunburst ( STOCK )

                       1998 Mexican 60's Re-Issue ,   with  2003 American series Pickups Installeed ( NOT STOCK ! )

                       1997 Fender American Standard Strat, Olympic White ( STOCK )

                       2000 American series Stratocaster , in Hot Rod Red  (STOCK )

                       2000 Squier Standard Strat , with 2000 American Series Strat Single-Coils ( NOT STOCK )

                       2002 Mexican Standard Strat, STOCK pickups, Roland GK-2A pickup ,

                        ( STOCK, EXCEPT FOR GK-2A)

In the past, I have parted with a '79 Strat, an '89 American Standard, '87 Strat Plus, '98 Strat Plus with a 2001 DELUXE  neck mounted on it, a '95 American Standard, 2002 Highway 1 in Honey Blonde, a 2003 Highway HSS Strat, and a 2004 Fender Highway 1 strat-

I have owned MANY NEW, VINTAGE , and USED guitars in my time, and I can say for a fact ,that the Highway 1 is basically a stripped-down, no-frills American-made Strat.

The plus side : USA quality and craftsmanship, the EXACT SAME bridge as used on the American, Japanese,and Mexican 50's and 60's re-issues aka 1957 ,1962, etc.

The pickups are American-Made, and are also found in the Mexican-Assembled  50's and 60's re-issue strats.

The neckplate is plain, like the Mexican STANDARD SERIES of strats, cheap, bargain-basement bridge, input jack, strap buttons, THIN-SKIN finish., cheapo input plate.

The REAL plusses : American-Made Neck, Body,Pickups, Pots, Switch, Plastic Parts, GERMAN-MADE strap locks,    "Eazy-Glider" string trees- the tuners look suspiciously like the Fender-Schallers of the 1980's and 1990's Fender American Standard series of guitars; EXACTLY where the tuners for the Highway 1 and the Mexican standard are ACTUALLY made will be a subject of debate for years to come...

The American Series of guitars use height-staggered Fender Schaller machine heads/tuners , while the LOCKING tuners Fender continues to use are made by SCHALLER in Germany (NO cheap asian knockoff crap here !! )

The older, Stra PLus guitars used a ' brushed chrome ' finish on their locking tuners, made then by Sperzel. The original roller nuts on the early PLUS series of Strat Plus were Fender-Wilkinsons, while later guitars ( 1993 and on ) used Schaller-made LSR roller nuts.

The details go on and on and on.....

In short, the Highway 1 is a good, quality alternative to the higher priced, Deluxe and Standard Series of USA made strats.

With SO MANY after-market options to choose from ,as well as upgrades available, you can get a good, used, Highway 1 on eBay for $350-500.00 , or LESS.

I'd give it 4 stars out of 5; it's just a cheaper, low-cost USA made Fender Strat for guys on a budget, who are TIRED of CRAP guitars!