2003 GMC SIERRA 2500 HD User Comment / Complaint

I have a 2003 sierra pickup 4x4, 64,000 miles. it has never been off road. 4 wheel drive has only been engaged less than a dozen times since the vehicle was purchased. i am the original owner. mileage has been approx 50/50 between highway and city driving. on a recent trip from prescott az to phoenix az, the passenger side hub assembly failed on 2003 gmc sierra pickup; 2500hd with duramax diesel engine. once hub assembly failed, the right front axle broke and basically allowed for the wheel to become detached from the vehicle. the hub assembly failed without warning and had it failed approx 10-15 miles earlier it would have resulted in loss of control of the vehicle coming down the mountains between prescott az and pheonix az. the vehicle has been maintained according to factory specifications. i had the vehicle towed to the dealer i purchased it from; peoria pontiac gmc, peoria, az. the service department diagnosed the hub assembly failure and axle breakage on the passenger side. i asked them to check the driver's side hub assembly; it was also bad. i asked the service person if there was some additional maintenance that i could have done to prevent this problem. the response was a disconcerting no; this just seems to happen on some of the pickups. i have paid to have both front hub assemblies replaced and the passenger axle; approx $2500. my bigger concern is first that 65000 city & highway miles seems pretty low for a failure point of something so critical as the steering and control of the vehicle. secondly that there is apparently no fix or additional explanation of how to avoid this problem on this vehicle. my immediate suspicion is that gm inadequate hub assemblies on their diesel pickups and are not able to handle the additional stresses of the heavy weights and torques, etc. i was traveling with my elderly parents and we were literally lucky that the failure occurred on a flat open area of road and i was able to get the vehicle to a safe stop.