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Product Warranties | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2012
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract] |
Product Warranty Disclosure [Text Block] | PRODUCT WARRANTIES We record a liability for estimated warranty obligations at the dates our product are sold. These estimates are established using sales volumes and internal and external warranty data where there is no payment history and historical information about the average cost of warranty claims for customers with prior claims. We adjust our liability as necessary to reflect changes in estimates as additional information is gathered as part of our active management of warranty exposure with our customers. As part of the 2009 Settlement and Commercial Agreement, AAM agreed to expanded warranty cost sharing with GM, which began on January 1, 2011. The following table provides a reconciliation of changes in the product warranty liability:
|  | Three Months Ended |  | Nine Months Ended
|  | September 30, |  | September 30,
|  | 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2012 |  | 2011
|  | (in millions)
Beginning balance |  | $ | 24.5 |  |  | $ | 8.1 |  |  | $ | 13.4 |  |  | $ | 2.3 |
Accruals |  | 2.8 |  |  | 3.0 |  |  | 17.2 |  |  | 9.2 |
Settlements |  | (0.3 | ) |  | (0.1 | ) |  | (0.7 | ) |  | (0.6 | )
Adjustment to prior period accruals |  | (0.7 | ) |  | — |  |  | (3.5 | ) |  | — |
Foreign currency translation and other |  | 0.1 |  |  | (0.2 | ) |  | — |  |  | (0.1 | )
Ending balance |  | $ | 26.4 |  |  | $ | 10.8 |  |  | $ | 26.4 |  |  | $ | 10.8 |

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- Definition The entire disclosure for standard and extended product warranties and other product guarantee contracts, including a tabular reconciliation of the changes in the guarantor's aggregate product warranty liability for the reporting period. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 460 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 8 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6398077&loc=d3e12565-110249 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name FASB Interpretation (FIN) -Number 45 -Paragraph 14 -Subparagraph a, b -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. + Details
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