Auto-By-Tel Sets Course for Expansion Overseas

Auto-By-Tel, the Internet’s biggest information, financing, buying and leasing service for new- and used-car shoppers in the United States and Canada, is quietly preparing to spread overseas.

Japan appears to be the first target, although “it is too soon to say that we definitely are going to be investing,” says Mark Lorimer, chief operating officer of the Irvine-based company.

A big Japanese newspaper didn’t think so, however, and late last week reported that the Internet car service not only was headed for Japan but also planned to spend about $100 million--12 billion yen--installing equipment to make the system work.

The Nihon Keizai newspaper did not quote any sources in its story, which said that Auto-By-Tel planned to be in operation in Japan by the end of 1998.

Lorimer, when told of the article, said that the company is just beginning to investigate overseas opportunities and that while the “timing might be right . . . and Japan certainly is high on our list, we’ve never even discussed an investment figure with any potential partners.”

The company, he noted, doesn’t even have $100 million invested in its North American operations.