We have a 2008 Cardinal that we purchased new. Some of the Cardinals did have problems with the frames cracking. We have not had it happen to ours. We have not had any problems that would be specific to Cardinal. I did replace the hydraulic pump that operates the slides, it is made by Lippert and used by many RV companies. You can go to the Cardinal RV Owners Club and research the frame problems. The frames are Lippert too and Cardinal was not the only one to have problems. The frame problems were mostly before 2008. Ours still look great inside and out.
We had a 1990 Holiday Rambler. It was a great camper, built with lots of quality. Sometime after that Holiday Rambler closed it's doors. When it was reopened, I don't think that it had the same quality.