Industry Leaders Will Provide Consumers with Easy and Convenient Personalized Car-Shopping and Lifetime Ownership Experience Through The AOL Auto Channel and "My Auto."

DETROIT, MI and DULLES, VA, - General Motors, the world's largest industrial corporation and full-line vehicle manufacturer, and America Online, the world's leading interactive services company, announced a major strategic alliance designed to bring consumers the easiest and most convenient personalized car shopping and lifetime ownership experience.

America Online and GM will work together to develop new products and services to empower consumers to use the Internet and interact with dealers to buy automobiles and assist them throughout the entire ownership lifecycle online.

This strategic alliance with America Online marks a major step in online consumer marketing by General Motors and its dealer network. General Motors and AOL will work together to leverage AOL's newly redesigned Auto Channel across AOL's multiple brands. AOL's redesigned Auto Channel, launching later this year, will allow consumers to shop for cars and trucks the way they want, enabling AOL members and users of its other interactive brands to find, for example, the exact GM make and model vehicle they are looking for including options -- then complete the purchase at a nearby GM dealership.

The two companies will also explore future opportunities between OnStar, the leading in-vehicle safety and security information service provider, and popular AOL interactive features. Additionally, GM and AOL will work to expand their relationship outside the U.S. and GM will make AOL software available through various GM marketing channels.

In addition to working with GM to make it easier for consumers to find and purchase automobiles, this Spring America Online will launch My Auto, a new personalized auto destination. My Auto will provide unique features and functionality, including My Calendar, AOL's easy-to-use, personalized calendar to enable consumers to receive and maintain important news, dates and maintenance information about their car, including scheduling routine maintenance and repairs and extending personalization on the Internet to include a comprehensive car ownership experience.

In 1999, more than 2 million consumers surfed the Internet for information to help them buy new cars, according to Forrester Research. That number is projected to quadruple to 8 million by 2003, with nearly half-a-million households using the Internet in connection with the purchase of cars and trucks, and generating $12 billion in revenues. (January 9, 2000)