PLYMOUTH, MI -- Hella Electronics Corp. announced this week plans to continue its participation in the national Student Auto Skills Competition co-sponsored by Ford Motor Co. and the Automobile Association of America (AAA) in 2005. Since 1991, Hella has donated more than 10,000 automotive components worth nearly $15,000 to the program, which will be held in all 50 states during 2005.

The Student Auto Skills Competition is an annual contest involving 6,000 high-school automotive students from 1,100 schools across the United States. Each year, parts are carefully prepared with intentional faults and installed as "bugs" in contest vehicles. During the competition, students must correctly locate and repair the "bugs" in the shortest possible time. The competition is designed to encourage talented young people to pursue careers in the automotive service industry.

"Vehicles are getting more complex all the time and there is a growing shortage of auto technicians," Joe Borruso, president and CEO of Hella North America. "Hella has made a long-term commitment to this program to help develop and train a new generation of service technicians."

Schools enter teams of two to eight juniors and seniors per full-time automotive instructor, who selects top students to take a written examination, administered by the department of education in each state. Two students with the highest scores from each school move to the "hands-on" state finals.

In the state finals, new Ford vehicles are uniformly "bugged" with identical malfunctions to diagnose and repair. Repairs must be made with the highest quality workmanship in the quickest time. Winning two-person teams from each state are provided expense-paid trips to the national finals.

At the national competition in Washington, D.C., contestants again take a written exam and participate in a "hands-on" competition. The team with the fewest quality-of-workmanship demerits and the best combined total score -- repair time plus written examination -- wins the competition.

Students, instructors and schools are eligible to win savings bonds, scholarships, trophies, jackets, certificates, shop manuals, trips, tools and automotive equipment. More than 4,000 contestants have gone on to work at Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships over the past decade.

For more information about Hella, go to: www.hella.com.

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