Brake line failure due to rusting

  Two weeks ago, my husband was driving his 1999 GMC Sierra, when suddenly and without any warning, the brakes went out completely. He came very close to getting into a vary bad accident. After being towed to a GMC service center, he was told the brake lines had rusted out. We had to have the entire brake line done, at a cost of over $1,600.00. Then while the truck is being worked on we get the news that the crossmemeber of the frame that holds up the gas tank is also severely
rusted out.Obviously  this is a huge danger to be driving around in a truck that the gas tank can fall out of. The GMC service center said there was nothing they could do as this is part of the frame.

  First, I would like to say that my husband has babied this truck from day one. It has never been off road, never been even near water, mostly used to drive back and forth to work, and an occasional trip to Home Depot.  My husband is a HUGE believer that we should all buy American cars, he has also always been a big proponent of GM. He is absolutely floored that this has happened.

  Second I would like to point out that this rusting issue is not something that you can really see from just going under the truck. It is not until the bed is off the truck that you can see the severity of the rusting. This is a very scary issue, as the gas tank could just give way without any warning as did the brakes. Luckily my husband is an experienced driver that was able to avoid a potential fatal accident, but I can't even imagine a younger less experienced driver having this happen to him/her. I have never seen a vehicle rust this badly at any age.

 Since this has happened, I have done quite a bit of research on this subject, and there are hundreds of GM truck owners that have the same problem. On March 30, 2010 the NHTSA started an investigation ( all documentation is available to review on the NHTSA website ) On January 5, 2011 the decided not to recall these trucks. This is not surprising since the United States Government bailed out General Motors. What makes this even more surprising is that the NHTSA received much less complaints for a very similar issue with the 2000-2003 Toyota Tundra truck, and a recall WAS issued. The Toyota recall was issued on or about April 30, 2010........ HMMMMM

 I Urge people to PLEASE make a formal complaint to GM corp. offices along with the NHTSA, and if this does not work, I hope that we can all get together as GM owners, and proceed with a class action lawsuit.

 This is a HUGE safety issue, and I would hope that GM and NHTSA would step up and take responsibility for this DANGEROUS problem.

 I will be posting as many links, addresses, information that I can get my hands on, and I would greatly appreciate it if other GM truck owners would also post and information that they think would be helpful.

Thank You
Pattipie3