Oh boy, here we go again. I'll put my flame suit on and brave the fires for the benefit of the OP. I would not exactly call DPMS "tried and true". The same goes for several other "mainstream" AR brands. Almost any AR can be made durable and reliable based on the intended use and most AR users never come close to truly wringing out their carbines. Some rifles only need a thorough inspection to ensure all the essentials are correctly assembled and fitted. However, some potential flaws may lurk under the surface and are impossible to see until they fail. These tend to have to do with critical parts that aren't made from the proper materials and tested fully.
If you're going to buy an off the shelf carbine and don't want to mess with tweaking and replacing parts, I'd recommend Colt, Daniel Defense, BCM, Troy, Noveske, Knight's Armament, and JP rifles to name a few. You might even want to check out the home state offerings from Loki. I built up a nice rifle with some of their components and they seem to be good.
If you don't mind working on the carbine a little and perhaps replacing or stocking some spare parts, I'd recommend S&W, Rock River, Stag, Spike's (ugh), DPMS to name a few more.
Based on price and availability, I see no reason to dive to the bottom and go for Bushmaster, Windham Weaponry, Del-Ton, Olympic, Model 1 Sales, etc. It's pretty easy to spend enough on upgrades to have outright purchased a Colt, Daniel Defense or BCM in the 1st place.
Now there will probably be a slew of follow up posts where people defend their pet brand as "just as good as" or perfectly fine. I'd simply question whether those statements are backed up by objective criteria or personal bias.
I've owned Bushmaster, DPMS and Olympic AR's and like I said, they can be made to work just fine. I just don't see the cost benefit. If you already have one, unless you can get what you paid for it on resale, I also don't see a reason to turn it and buy another. Just upgrade parts as you can and keep shooting. With AR's as with most other things, you tend to get what you pay for, but there are some very overpriced rigs out there that don't compare with similarly priced offerings. If you really want to shop right and buy right the 1st time, you might want to check out m4carbine.net. Just know up front that they can be a little arrogant and dismissive if you don't use the search feature or you come in with pre-conceived ideas. When I first joined up over there I almost didn't stick around, but I'm glad I did. I've learned a ton about the AR platform over there.
Good luck!
