After about two months after I put in my order, my car went into production on week 19. I took delivery of the Carbon Black 35i M-Sport three weeks later. During the wait, I wavered a bit on the chestnut interior because I had not seen it in person. But I wanted to try something different from the black and wood trim interior of my previous car, a 2008 BMW 335i. At delivery, after taking my first look of it at the dealership, I am very happy I got this exterior color and the chestnut interior with the brushed aluminum trim. I ordered all the options except for HUD, Auto Hi-Beam, and Satellite Radio.
My initial impressions thus far confirm to me that the 35i is the best combination of roughly 80% of the sportiness of the 335i (hoping this percentage goes up after I'm done babying it during the break-in period) while gaining some practicality for a growing family. The cabin and the electronics are an upgrade to me. Here are some pictures my friend and I took on the second day after delivery. As you can see, I was so eager to take these pictures, I did not even think to remove a couple of the safety warning labels.
BTW, I also spent some of my X3 Difference accessory credit on an iPhone 4 media adapter cradle. I installed it but I could not get it to work as the iDrive told me that it failed to make a connection. BMW Apps worked with the iPhone using the USB cable connection. I brought it back to the dealer. The SA told me that they have had a couple of other customers come back with the same problem. He thought that either the connectors on the adapter or in the vehicle are poorly designed because there is not a whole lot of margin of error in making a proper connection. They swapped and installed a new adapter for me. Now it is working properly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to work flawlessly.
Thanks to all forum members who have helped me to get well informed about the X3.
