Net Property and Lease Commitments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

NET PROPERTY AND LEASE COMMITMENTS

Net Property

Net property is recorded at cost, net of accumulated depreciation and impairments.  We capitalize new assets when we expect to use the asset for more than one year.  Routine maintenance and repair costs are expensed when incurred.

Property and equipment are depreciated primarily using the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the asset.  Useful lives range from 3 years to 36 years.  The estimated useful lives generally are 14.5 years for machinery and equipment, 3 years for software (8 years for mainframe and client based software), 30 years for land improvements, and 36 years for buildings.  Tooling generally is amortized over the expected life of a product program using a straight-line method.  

Net property at December 31 was as follows (in millions):

Automotive Sector	2014			2013
Land	$	351		$	440
Buildings and land improvements	10,601			10,325
Machinery, equipment and other	33,381			34,830
Software	2,122			2,069
Construction in progress	1,719			2,110
Total land, plant and equipment and other	48,174			49,774
Accumulated depreciation	(29,134		)	(31,476		)
Net land, plant and equipment and other	19,040			18,298
Tooling, net of amortization	10,755			9,194
Total Automotive sector	29,795			27,492
Financial Services sector (a)	331			124
Total Company	$	30,126		$	27,616

__________

(a) Included in Other assets on our sector balance sheet.

Automotive sector property-related expenses for the years ended December 31 were as follows (in millions):

	2014		2013		2012
Depreciation and other amortization	$	2,092	$	2,110	$	1,794
Tooling amortization	2,160		1,954		1,861
Total	$	4,252	$	4,064	$	3,655
Maintenance and rearrangement	$	1,523	$	1,422	$	1,352

Conditional Asset Retirement Obligations

Conditional asset retirement obligations relate to legal obligations associated with the retirement, abandonment, or disposal of tangible long-lived assets. Estimates of the fair value liabilities for our conditional asset retirement obligations that are recorded in Other liabilities and deferred revenue at December 31 were as follows (in millions):

	2014			2013
Beginning balance	$	246		$	267
Liabilities settled	(11		)	(5		)
Revisions to estimates	(7		)	(16		)
Ending balance	$	228		$	246

NOTE 10.NET PROPERTY AND LEASE COMMITMENTS(Continued)

Lease Commitments

We lease land, buildings, and equipment under agreements that expire over various contractual periods. Minimum non-cancellable operating lease commitments at December 31, 2014 were as follows (in millions):

	2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		Thereafter		Total
Automotive sector	$	211	$	166	$	117	$	70	$	51	$	64	$	679
Financial Services sector	57		53		41		22		12		19		204
Total Company	$	268	$	219	$	158	$	92	$	63	$	83	$	883

Operating lease expense for the years ended December 31 was as follows (in millions):

	2014		2013		2012
Automotive sector	$	423	$	411	$	404
Financial Services sector	101		105		106
Total Company	$	524	$	516	$	510