The brand-new BMW 1 M Coupe hasn’t been around from more than a few months, but we already have the first recorded accident of which we know about.

The unlucky owner of the car, who is from South Korea, posted these photos of the mishap over at the BMW 1Addicts forum. He said that he was the first customer to receive one of the 80 BMW 1 M Coupes scheduled to arrive in the South Korean market.

Hyundai has blessed the South Korean market version of its Sonata mid-size sedan with its very first mild facelift. Just don’t blink because you may very well miss it.

The light cosmetic surgery on the outside brings a revamped front grille with a little bit less chrome on top and around the sides, plus new LED taillights at the back, reshaped mirror casings and a fresh choice of alloy wheel designs including a set of 18-inch multispoke rims.

Hyundai and Kia have a strange, symbiotic relationship. They share factories, parts as well as engineering knowhow and product testing duties. And yet they remain separate entities with their own marketing, distribution and styling departments.

Michael Sprague, Kia’s VP for marketing and communication describes their relationships to the New York Times likes this:

“Kia Motors America operates as a completely separate sales, marketing and distribution organization in the United States. [Hyundai and Kia share engineering efficiencies] similar in many ways to other global automakers.”

For the past few months, design students from 50 universities across the globe took up Ferrari’s challenge of designing a future supercar for the famous Italian brand. Now, following the completion of the second phase in which seven schools were chosen to move to the final round, we have a winner.

Drum-roll please…and the winners of the Ferrari World Design Contest are…the students from Seoul’s Hongik University. The South Korean school finished first ahead of the second-placed IED of Turin in Italy and London’s Royal College of Arts.

The South Korean division of General Motors has agreed to a record bonus payment for its employees following a partial strike last week. This was the first organized union strike to hit GM Korea in three years and it led to a production loss of 9,700 units.

The agreement between GM Korea and the union includes a raise of basic salaries by 4.7% and, more importantly, a $6,140 (6.5 million won) bonus to each worker.

Not too long ago, if someone told you that a South Korean model would challenge America’s best selling sedan, the Toyota Camry, you would have probably laughed in his or her face.

Needless to say, a lot has changed over the past few years with Hyundai and in particular its latest Sonata sedan, not only challenging, but this past May even surpassing the Camry in U.S. sales for the first time in history.

Of course, the fact that Toyota’s production capabilities were seriously affected by the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, played a significant role in Hyundai’s accomplishment.

After last month's teaser sketch, Renault's Korean subsidiary Samsung unveiled the SM7 Concept at the Seoul Motor Show. In essence, it’s a pre-production design study that previews the next generation of Renault Samsung's flagship model, the SM7.

GM's Korean subsidiary lifted the wraps off the Mi-ray hybrid roadster concept at the 2011 Seoul Motor Show today, as a tribute to Chevrolet's 100th anniversary this year. The aggressive-looking Mi-ray (which means “future” in Korean) was developed by the GM Advanced Design Studio in Seoul and pays homage to the bow-tie brand's sports car heritage.

The roadster uses styling cues from Chevy's 1963 Monza SS and the 1962 Corvair Super Spyder, but also from aircrafts, with its aerodynamic fuselage being reminiscent of modern jet fighters. Elements like the scissor-doors, the pronounced wheel-arches and the sharp front bumper add further drama to the Mi-ray's appearance.

The car's bodywork is made of lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and carbon fiber reinforced plastics, while the turbine-shaped wheels (20-inch front/21-inch rear) are made of aluminum-carbon fiber composite.

Making its world premiere today at the at the Seoul Motor Show, is Kia’s Naimo electric crossover utility vehicle (CUV), a B-segment sized concept car that will serve as a test-bed for the company's EV technology. Penned by Kia's international design team in Seoul, the car takes its name from the Korean word “Ne-mo”, which is pronounced ‘Neh-mo’ and means ‘square shape.

The 2011 Seoul Motor Show that runs in South Korea from March 31 to April 10 plays host to the world premiere of the all-new Hyundai Blue2 concept study. The name ‘Blue2’, which is read ‘Blue square’, is a combination of Hyundai’s sub eco-brand ‘Blue Drive’ and the number `2’ from H2, the symbol for hydrogen gas.

Codenamed HND-6, the prototype is Hyundai’s first sedan-style Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV). The four-door saloon is powered by a fuel cell electric system that delivers a stack power of 90kW or 121HP and fuel economy of 34.9km/ℓ (of hydrogen, of course), which is equal to 82mpg US and 2.9lt/100km. The concept is also equipped with low-resistance tires and alloy wheels which are designed to improve aerodynamic performance.

Renault's South Korean brand Samsung released a teaser sketch of the SM7 concept car that previews the next-generation of the firm’s large sedan. The current SM7, which is built on Nissan’s J31 platform that underpins the Asian market Nissan Teana and the sixth-generation of the North American Nissan Maxima, has been on the market since 2004. Read more »

It appears that the Soul is the next vehicle in Kia’s list to receive an update. Caught here in testing in Germany by our spy photographers, the bagged-up ends do their job to hide the Soul’s stylistic upgrades with the only visible change being the redesigned exterior mirrors that house the turning lights.

However, it is expected that the Soul will take some cues from the new Picanto and Rio hatchbacks (both of which were revealed at the Geneva Motor Show) such as the pulled back headlamps and more pronounced bumpers. An interior rework may also be in the cards.

It appears that the Soul is the next vehicle in Kia’s list to receive an update. Caught here in testing in Germany by our spy photographers, the bagged-up ends do their job to hide the Soul’s stylistic upgrades with the only visible change being the redesigned exterior mirrors that house the turning lights.

However, it is expected that the Soul will take some cues from the new Picanto and Rio hatchbacks (both of which were revealed at the Geneva Motor Show) such as the pulled back headlamps and more pronounced bumpers. An interior rework may also be in the cards.