BMW News

["Weinberg, Steve" <weinberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Off the Web-Wire:
BMW West Coast Test Center: Construction Begins April 29, 1999 Construction
began today on BMW Group's $28 million North American engineering and
vehicle emission testing center in Oxnard, California. The new center, which
will serve the product engineering needs of both BMW and Land Rover in North
America, will be built on an 11-acre site next to the company's Vehicle
Preparation Center and will replace the current facility in Marina del Rey,
California. At the same time, the BMW Group began a $1.2 million expansion
and renovation of the existing Vehicle Preparation Center.

When complete next spring, BMW Group employment in Oxnard will increase by
an additional 100 jobs, making it the largest BMW Group site in California
and one of the largest in North America. Currently, about 140 people -- full
time and temporary -- work in the existing Vehicle Preparation Center in
Oxnard.

"We are expanding our operations in the U.S. to meet increasing customer
demand for BMW and Land Rover vehicles, and our additions here in Oxnard
will provide both direct and strategic support as we move into the 21st
Century," said Victor Doolan, president of BMW of North America, Inc., who
was in Oxnard for the ground breaking ceremony this morning.

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