Thanks for the kind words about the column. Well, it only sort-of worked on cars. But Detroit makes much more money on trucks than cars, so probably can't afford to let the Japanese permanently take away market share, as happened with cars. So the financial pressure to hold share probably means better quality for Detroit trucks. All are better than average.
Reliability is hard to measure based on new-vehicle experience, so that's a bigger question mark.
On that, automakers are dependent on the quality of parts from their suppliers. And suppliers are getting the holy Ned squeezed out of them just now as car companies try to cut costs everywhere. One dealer informs me that the Cadillac Eldorado will NOT be manufactured after this year. Another dealer has told me that, not only will it be continued next year, but it will be restyled. But there's only a small market these days for Detroit fancy coupes.