Dashboard Failed problems of the 2001 GMC Sierra 1500

First thing was that my gas gauge started to fluctuate. Up until the point that I didn't know how much fuel I had in my tank. Then my instrument cluster started to go. It started to fluctuate then dies from time to time. Rpm's , speed, gas, oil press, park, neutral, reverse, drive, 1,2,3, and miles driven cannot see anymore. Everything died the first time when I was driving home from work in the middle of the night on a dark road. Called dealer and dealer said it will cost me almost $600, which is ridiculous considering the fact that I just paid off the vehicle. I know that this is a repetitive problem with gm vehicles and am still wondering why gm won,t recognize it except only for '03 and '04 model trucks with under 70,000 miles. I bet you if people knew that one day their cluster would die under 7 years they would rather place their investment in a vehicle elsewhere. If I was stationed stateside when this problem started 2 1/2 years ago; I would have had the dealer take care of it. //signed// concerned owner.