I worked in a music store for twelve years, my daughter and I recently went snooping for an electric for her. We were both pretty impressed with the srat squiers (pretty sure they're Chinese). Fender has reasonable QC on their import line, they end up wearing squier and fender on the headstocks, so it behooves them to be so. Two things I have found time and again on less expensive guitars that you can use as a quick assessment. Run your hand up and down the neck. Are the fret wires sticking out? That is a clear indicator that immature wood was used. Wood shrinks as it cures,metal does not. That's a red flag. Number two: If you have to fight the guitar to get it tuned, that's always a red flag too. The reasons behind it are many and varied, and if you have to become an investigator to find out what is causing this issue, you have to ask yourself if this particular guitar is even worth it.
One other piece of advice. Get an amp that is not the bottom of the barrel. Once a 12" speaker is in there, and it has at least 25 watts of power, it will have some resonance to it. Go up the line until you can really tell the difference. You'll know, one will just have more balls to it than any of the ones lower on the totem pole. the kid's gonna want to rock out!