His frame cracked, he would probably have been the same if his bike was a carbon bike that cracked.

Even steel and titanium frames crack, so it's not like there's anything earth shattering about that happening. However, the likelihood increases tremendously if you crash. One of my friends had a crash on his Aluminum Trek. He's still riding it and it's crackless. He's ridden the heck out of it for over 4 years.

A lot of people still regularly ride cannondale's they've had for a few years.

Just go with what you like, if you go around asking for that type of advice here, you have to learn that everyone likes their bike and has a reason for buying it and they tend to get defensive about it since they spent a lot of good money on it.

I know I get this way about my CAAD9.