Maruti Udyog buys General Motors for $82.7 billion

OK, so it didn't really happen. At least not yet. The India Times has gone creative on us, writing a story with a dateline of 2025 that details what could be a very real story as the Indian automotive industry becomes a major market for automakers. The fictional buyout "beat" an offer from China's Dong Feng Motor Company, giving Indian automaker Maruti a hypothetical 62-percent share of the world passenger car market.

While the story is fiction, the premise is not -- Chinese and Indian automotive companies are poised to establish a major presence in the world's automotive industry. The only thing about this story that some cynics would find hard to believe is that GM might still be worth $82.7 billion in 2025.