Today I ordered my X1. I am working with one of the forum sponsors (full report to follow when the car comes, but all positive so far) who was kind enough to run a search for the configuration I wanted. He got close but not quite and recommended that if I wasn't in a hurry to order one. He had an allocation spot for the end of this week so I grabbed that. If all goes well the car will be here around Thanksgiving. I'm paying $500 over invoice which amounts to about $2,000 off MSRP. I thought that was great given the newness of the car in the US market and the fact that I'm not a BMW owner and can't get any of the other incentives.

I'm getting the sDrive28i in Alpine White, black leather interior, Ultimate package, and the sport paddle shifting wheel. Originally I was going to go with a very stock car to keep the price down. But I'm buying and will keep the car for a long time so a few thousand here or there in the long run doesn't matter that much. I wanted the moonroof and that is a good chunk of the cost of the premium package. Then if you are getting that and the Tech package you might as well step up to the ultimate because you essentially are getting the Driver Assist stuff for free. To be sure there is a bunch of stuff in the Ultimate package that I don't really need. If I could have cherry picked things as options I would have done that.

I thought long and hard about the HK audio option. I'm an audiophile and I am willing to spend the money on good sound. Heck, I would have bought the Acura TSX wagon if it had driven worth a darn simply because it has an amazing stereo in it. At the end of the day I stuck with the basic stereo, albeit with the Tech package to get iDrive and the navigation screen for display, and down the road I'll spend that money on an upgrade from the Bavarian Soundwerks folks.

I never drove the 35i because it was quite a bit more expensive and I did not want to be tempted. Plus I really wanted the 8 speed gear box and the better fuel economy. I'm coming from a 146HP Honda so I'm thinking that 241HP plus all that torque will be enough to keep me happy.

The various lines did not seem to bring anything I wanted so I passed on them. M Sport I considered but I did not want to make the ride too sporty/harsh. I would have gone for the exclusive blue in the M Sport package if it had been a regular color choice. It looks gorgeous.

Speaking of colors I went with basic white first because it saved me money, but I considered a few other colors including the orange. My wife ruined that color though because when I showed it to her she said "Looks like the Dukes of Hazard". Valencia Orange is now Dukes of Bavaria in our household. At any rate the look of the car in white has grown on me and I do not feel like I am compromising on it to save some money.