The fanfare surrounding the Nov. 18 initial offering that ended General Motors' (GM) 19 months of federally funded convalescence made it seem like the U.S. auto industry's event of the year. But a much more crucial step in the recovery of the U.S. auto trade occurred in March, when automotive research firm J.D. Power & Associates released annual data showing U.S. automobiles had, for the first time, outshone all others in reliability. "The