FCA May Have Found A New Owner: Hyundai

You may have heard a dirty rumor that Fiat Chrysler is looking to hook up with just about any other automaker. That, of course, is a lie. After all, it rebuffed Great Wall’s courtship, maybe because the Chinese company was only interested in Jeep, but that’s beside the point. The latest rumor is that FCA may get bought out by Hyundai, because why not?

This isn’t coming out of thin air. South Korean press outlets were the first to report it, through anonymous sources inside Hyundai. The Detroit Bureau started spreading the news around stateside, and here we are.

Putting these two together at first may seem stupid, repugnant, or both — but it could make sense. Both are struggling in their unique ways, but Hyundai has mastered making great cars and small crossovers, while FCA has a compelling lineup of trucks and rugged SUVs (plus some tire-shredding muscle cars). You wouldn’t see much product cannibalization, like what GM and Ford have struggled with.

This merger would create the largest automaker in the world, outclassing Toyota, GM, and the Volkswagen Group. Hyundai and FCA combined sales in 2016 would amount to well over 11.5 million vehicles, or over a million more than anyone else.

Will this happen? It may seem strange, but it could, or this could just be another FCA merger drama that goes absolutely nowhere.