Damaged Siding (Easy Fix?)

[Anton]

My wife and I have recently purchased a repoed 1999 Redman doublewide Manufactured Home housed on a permanent foundation. This is our first home and as far as we can tell the MH was very well taken care of. One of our concerns with the home is the siding. When we were first looking at home, I noticed some cracks in the siding (I think that it is called Hardboard Siding, not sure, it looks like 4’ wide sheets notched to appear as vertical wood paneling). At the time, I felt that this was a minor problem. Was I right? Can I fill in the cracks with putty or caulking and paint over? Or does this sound like something more serious?
We live in dry New Mexico with an average rainfall of 7.5 inches, 273 sunny days and low humidity, could this really be water damage?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Duke]

On this site, there appears to have been a recall for your type siding.