SOUTHFIELD, Mich., December 1, 2001—BASF's Automotive Refinish Regional Business Unit announced an agreement with SeeProgress.com, one of the pioneers in Internet vehicle tracking services. According to Marketing Director, Guy Bargnes, "As we were developing BASF's VisionPLUS® OnLine business analysis Website, we realized we were only one small step away from giving customers the ability to track vehicle repair progress over the Internet, so we secured the VehicleUpdate.com URL over a year ago."

The VehicleUpdate.com service allows vehicle owners to follow the progress of their vehicles through the repair process, and allows the shop and vehicle owners to communicate via e-mail. "We wanted BASF shop owners to have customer vehicle tracking, a personalized Web Page for the shop, and two-way customer communication via eMail, all in a basic yet robust package," said Bob Roewer, Manager of e-Business Development. "This product does all three. All the shop needs is Internet access."

Speaking about the agreement, Dave Henderson, SeeProgress president, said, "We are very pleased to be providing the VehicleUpdate.com service specified by BASF. This allows us to offer a high-value entry-level product as well as the industry's most sophisticated system, the photography-rich AutoWatch^SMSystem. The high-value VehicleUpdate.com service is available exclusively to BASF customers".

Rich Leenstra, Director of Sales for BASF's Automotive Refinish Regional Business Unit, commented, "We recognized that there might be a demand among vehicle owners and insurers for vehicle tracking with digital photographs of the customers' vehicles. SeeProgress already had such a product, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel. At this early stage of Internet vehicle tracking, no one can predict the ultimate market mix of tracking products. In football terms, our strategy is to 'flood the zone', to offer the shop owner the choice of either product. I urge every shop owner to log on to VehicleUpdate.com for a look at this element of what we call 'The Future at BASF'."

According to Roewer, "Digital repair order data can be utilized in estimating systems, management systems, vehicle tracking for production management, cycle time analysis, and customer vehicle tracking via the Internet. In the future, the shop owner will enter the customer repair order data only once, and the information will flow electronically into each application. At the present time, we have separate data entry—name and R.O. number—for vehicle owner tracking, but the system is designed to accept data electronically, as it becomes available."

"'The Future at BASF' is one of our guiding themes for 2002, along with product leadership and highly trained field personnel," said Bargnes. "The vehicle tracking service at VehicleUpdate.com is just one of several initiatives that harness the power, efficiency, and value of the Internet for the benefit of our customers."

BASF is the world's largest producer of chemicals and related products. Based in Mount Olive, N.J., BASF Corporation is the North American affiliate of BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany), which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "BF." BASF Corporation had sales of $7.9 billion in 2000. BASF in North America employs more than 15,000 people at more than 50 locations, and can be found on the Internet at www.basf.com/usa.

VisionPLUS is a registered trademark of BASF Corporation. AutoWatch is a service mark of SeeProgress, Incorporated.

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