a hurricane of yuck

I will neverevereverevereverever buy a vehicle from Benson again. I just had my truck inspected only to find that, on top of the new tires and tie rod end which I expected, I need welding work done. On the frame. Because it's cracked. Yeah. Looks like another year of several hundred dollars to get a vehicle to pass.

So let's recap. In the ten months that I've owned the truck:

• The day I went to pick it up I sat in their waiting area for three hours while they replaced the ignition security system because it failed.
• A week after buying it I had to bring it back under warranty to fix an issue with it bucking under load. Turned out to be a cracked spark plug and some filter.
• The dome lights don't work (yes, minor issue but still...)
• The engine is acting funny and does the weird stalling out thing for no apparent reason (though it may be a voltage regulator, not sure).
• The frame is cracked.
• The brake lines are rusting and, while they pass this year, they will need to be replaced before next year. This is an all-day project on this particular year of Silverado because of how Chevy ran the lines (I really think engineers should be forced to fix their designs so they'll understand just how stupid they really are sometimes).
• The passenger rocker panel and the rear wheel wells are already rusting out and will need to be fixed soon even though they pass for now.
• I paid far too much for this truck and will be paying for another three and a half years.

List Above + Circumstances Around Financing = Unhappy Me. :(

So far I'm not seeing the advantage to buying new or used cars from dealers. I could have paid a few hundred for another junker, done a bunch of DIY repairs and brought it in when it wasn't something I could have done and replaced it when it inevitably died. I would have saved thousands. Lots of thousands.