
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991                   TAG: 9104170617
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

ANALYSTS SAY MITSUBISHI IS CHRYSLER'S BEST HOPE

An infusion of money, technology and management know-how from Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan may be the best hope to save the ailing Chrysler Corp., but not necessarily as an independent company, analysts say.

"It's almost inevitable that Chrysler will have to rely on Mitsubishi, and that it will eventually end up in Mitsubishi's hands," said Gregory Clark, professor of economics at Tokyo's Sophia University.

"When that happens, there really will be an outcry in the United States, because people will see it as a symbol of the economic imbalance between the two countries," he said.

"If it can happen in cars, it can happen in any industry."

Japanese newspapers have reported that Mitsubishi plans to help Chrysler by investing at least $220 million more in Diamond-Star Motors Corp., an auto assembly plant in Normal, Ill.

In exchange, Mitsubishi's stake in the factory would rise to 80 percent from 50 percent and it would receive a larger management role, the reports said.

"If the deal goes through, it will be a case of Mitsubishi rescuing Chrysler," said Noriko Takahashi, an analyst with UBS Phillips and Drew in Tokyo.

Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, said such financial support would be the first from a Japanese carmaker for one of Detroit's Big Three, and might lead to an eventual Mitsubishi stake in Chrysler itself.

Mitsubishi officials said today that no decisions have been made.

Diamond-Star is Mitsubishi's only assembly plant in the United States. It began commercial production in 1988, making the Plymouth Laser and Eagle Talon, both marketed by Chrysler, and the Mitsubishi Eclipse.

by CNB