Maybe its a regional thing, but I never saw a single cold saw in the flesh, until I bought mine, in about 1992. Fab shops here on the west coast seldom had them, and the few I heard about were $30,000 models with 30" or bigger diameter blades, for cutting huge slabs of steel.
Nick- you would be amazed at the low quality of tools that are accepted as normal here in the USA. Yes, we have a lot of "good old american iron". But most of it that is any good is VERY old. As in world war 2 era stuff. Since most of this stuff is completely obsolete in industry, it sells for scrap price. In fact, the United States is so huge that in many places, the cost of trucking scrap metal to a mill to be remelted, or to a port to be shipped overseas, is so high, that often machines sell for LESS than scrap prices per pound. This further warps our ideas of what a machine tool should cost, as the old ones are so cheap.
Most shops here run tools that would not even be considered in a german shop. Your standards are just much higher than ours.
A new DMG machining center can easily run $250,000 US- and most shops here grumble and complain about having to spend $40,000 for a Taiwanese machine.
A new Peddinghaus or Mubea ironworker runs twice or three times what a barely adequate american made or import will cost, even though they outlast them two or three times. I have seen shops buy 2 or 3 american made Scotchman ironworkers, at $8000 a piece, as they wear out in a few years, yet shake their head at the thought of paying $20,000 for a german made Peddinghaus. They dont seem to realize that many Peddy's and Mubeas are still working every day after 20 and 30 years.
Unfortunately, due to political differences, I have never smelled that Russian smell. We have almost no Russian imports of ANYTHING available here, except titanium and aluminum, neither of which smells much.
But I can imagine what it might be like- American Military Surplus often has a funky smell.