Business Notes AUTOMOBILES

For automakers, owning a rental-car company is a great way to showcase products. Ford has already bought into Hertz, General Motors is allied with Avis, and Chrysler owns Thrifty. Now a foreign manufacturer is getting into the act. Last week Mitsubishi Motors became the first Japanese owner of a U.S. agency when it bought control of Value Rent-A-Car for an undisclosed sum. Mitsubishi currently supplies 10% of Value's 20,000-car fleet, a share that will rise to 85% by year's end. After the agency has used the cars, it will turn them over to the company's dealer network for resale. And Mitsubishi hopes the arrangement will boost its profile by allowing renters to try out new models. The automaker hopes to sell 200,000 vehicles in the U.S. this year, up from 150,000 in 1989.