SOUTHFIELD, MI, October 5, 1998 -- BASF Automotive Refinish has announced the launch of the Glasurit Passport Training Program, a comprehensive new training initiative that allows Glasurit users and distributors to prepare themselves to excel and thrive in the challenging years ahead.

The Passport Program offers a structured, multi-course curriculum geared toward a complete refinish education. Enrollees receive an actual Passport booklet, which is stamped each time a course is completed; the fully stamped booklet can be redeemed for a travel incentive award.

The program is designed to elevate the refinish professional beyond basic application knowledge, teaching productivity techniques, color theory and adjustment, color retrieval systems, preparation techniques, waterborne technology, and troubleshooting for overall shop productivity problems. Successful completion of the entire Passport curriculum will qualify the graduate as a Master Certified Glasurit Technician.

For distributor (jobber) personnel, classes on these technical topics are further supplemented with courses on refinish selling skills, Glasurit sales techniques, and counter person development and training.

"BASF is introducing this program to assist and reward those professional refinish technicians and distributors who are sincerely dedicated to continuous personal development, as well as to improving the paint processes and body shop operations they deal with daily," said James K. Warren, manager of training for BASF Automotive Refinish. The Passport Program addresses the industry's growing demand for increased productivity and sophistication on the part of painters, shops, and jobbers, Warren explained. "A program this comprehensive is a first not only for BASF," Warren noted, "but, we believe, for the entire refinish industry."

All of the courses are competency- and performance-based; thus, the student must demonstrate mastery of the subject matter by passing both written and hands-on performance examinations for each class. Passing these examinations is required to achieve successful completion of a course and thus earn a stamp in the Passport booklet. The performance-based examinations assure the students and their employers of maximum value from the time spent in training.

Successful completion of the program requires 11 total days of training for refinish technicians (or 10 days for distributor personnel) within a three-year period, thereby guaranteeing painter re-certification for Glasurit's Lifetime Warranty program.

Any automotive refinish technician or distributor who wants to participate in the Glasurit Passport Training Program can obtain an Enrollment Form through the local BASF representative, a BASF Regional Training Instructor, a sponsoring BASF Distributor, or by calling the BASF Training Enrollment Center toll-free at 1-(800)-532-7782.

BASF Corporation Group, headquartered in Mount Olive, N.J., is the NAFTA region member of the BASF Group (Ludwigshafen, Germany). With sales of $6.9 billion in 1997, BASF Corporation Group is among the top ten producers of chemicals and related products in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.®" summarizes the diverse product mix BASF offers, such as chemicals polymers, automotive coatings, colorants, pharmaceuticals, nylon fibers and agricultural products. The company employs more than 15,000 people in the NAFTA region and has an Internet site at http: //www.basf.com.