Garmin International Inc. said Wednesday that its GPS units would begin popping up later this year in thousands of rental vehicles in the United States and Canada.

Olathe-based Garmin announced a deal with Tulsa, Okla.-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. to rent the devices at 287 Dollar Rent-A-Car and Thrifty Car Rental locations.

For Dollar and Thrifty, customers can rent for an additional $9.95 per day a dashboard-mounted unit that can provide video maps to a destination and voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions. The units include the locations of 6 million points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, ATM locations, gas stations and Dollar and Thrifty car rental sites.

The company is well-known in aviation and boating circles and has begun making inroads into the automotive and consumer markets. With reported 2004 sales of $762.5 million, Garmin is ranked second in the country by NPD Group Inc.