GM leads in J.D. Power initial quality study as tech features draw mixed reviews.

Just four years after emerging from a painful and complicated bankruptcy restructuring, the folks at General Motors have a lot to crow about.

The recent 2013 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study places GM as the top major manufacturer in the world, and second, only behind Porsche, among 33 manufacturers of all sizes. Overall, GM had 8 different model-level awards.

The next best only had three.

It represents a huge turnaround for GM as just five years ago, as GM was entering bankruptcy and government-backed restructuring, GM vehicles were at the bottom of the J.D. Power survey. Now GM is outpacing even foreign luxury brands, like Lexus and Infiniti.

GMC vehicles reported just 90 problems per 100 vehicles sold. That compares to an industry average off 113 problems per 100 vehicles. Ford ranked the worst among the big three American manufacturers, at 131 problems per 100 vehicles. Chrysler was in the middle of the pack, at 109 problems per 100 units sold.

GM attributes the rapid rise in quality to its implementation of a quick feedback system. The company has focused on routing customer complaints back to the factory in a timely manner to ensure newly minted GM vehicles see the fixes as soon as possible. The effort shows, as GM vehicles now tops the list of major brands in initial quality.

This is the first time GM has ever topped the list. Last year, GM had ranked seventh, still a marked improvement from its pre-bankruptcy troubles. The giant leap in GM quality appears to have come mostly from the company’s truck division. GM trucks went from 12th place in 2012 to 2nd place in 2013 in the Initial Quality Study.

One intriguing story to follow is where GM goes from here. Many of the post-bankruptcy models that catapulted GM to quality dominance are about to undergo their first major refreshes since the company’s restructuring. The Cadillac Escalade, one of GM’s biggest money makers for years, is about to get a facelift. The new version of it was not included in the 2013 survey. However, the Chevy Impala redesign is already on the road, and it was included in the survey, with good results.

David Sargent, the J.D. Power vice-president of global research, said the move has erased the long-standing quality gap between American and foreign cars. He described the gap as “immaterial” now. Toyota had dominated the survey for most of the last three decades.

The J.D. Power survey tracks the number of complaints users log about a vehicle during its first 90 days of ownership. This year represents the first year big tech features were included. Reviews indicate all manufacturers still have a way to go before tech integration is well-rounded.