An article in The New York Times about South Korea's Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group includes a graphic that shows its annual U.S. sales now equal Nissan's and are fast approaching Chrysler's.

Indeed, the company is likely to overtake Chrysler in the near future as the troubled Italian-owned American auto maker's sales line is down, down, down.

Consider this: Hyundai's August sales topped were up 47 percent from last year while total industry sales were up only 1 percent, according to the NYT. And its 8 percent of the new vehicle market share last month was more than Chrysler's 7.4 percent.

Last year, it became the fourth-largest automaker in the world behind Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen. That compares with a ranking of 11th less than a decade ago, according to the NYT.