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New Budd, Visteon Venture Leverages Dual Expertise in Modular Design

28 September 2000

New Budd, Visteon Venture Leverages Dual Expertise in Modular Design

    TROY, Mich. and DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 27 The Budd Company
and Visteon Corporation today announced they have formed a joint
venture to provide modular chassis solutions that will provide more system
integration, while achieving lower mass targets and lower costs to certain
vehicle manufacturer programs in North America.
    BV Chassis Systems, LLC, a joint venture between Budd, a subsidiary of
ThyssenKrupp Automotive of Germany, and Visteon, will combine Budd's extensive
structural capabilities with Visteon's chassis systems engineering and
integration expertise.  The new company enables the partners to
collaboratively engineer and customize vehicle chassis modules and systems
according to customers' needs.
    "Budd is excited about combining resources with its new partner to offer
innovative modular chassis design and development," said Siegfried Buschmann,
Budd chairman and chief executive officer.
    "The strength of BV Chassis is represented by the engineering, quality and
manufacturing resources of our parent companies," said Ed Buker, Visteon vice
president and general manager of Visteon's Chassis Systems.