I ordered my X1 on September 12th. My salesperson told me the paddle shifters were not an option on the X1. I thought I had read differently but assumed he was correct and ordered my car. One week later, I read the paddle shifters are available and had to be ordered as a separate N/C line item. I contacted my salesperson and told him of the issue. He immediately got back to me and told me my car would have to be ordered again. The original order was too far along in production already (after 1 week!). So I did get a new VIN number. But it took a couple of weeks to get the car in production the 2nd time.
I did not think I would use the paddle shifters and considered just keeping the original car as ordered. I wanted the M sport version for the seats and firm suspension. I did what most girls do, I called my dad.
He said I should get the shifters because:
1) It was a no charge adder, included in the M sport package (I have a print out from BMW showing the "7XA M sports leather steering wheel with paddle shifters under the sport package for a "$0" price adder.)
2) There was no reason I couldn't wait an extra few weeks
3) All M version BMWs with automatic transmissions should have the paddle shifters
4) There is a possibility that if I sell the car, it could be worth more with the shifters
Now my car is on a cruise through the Panama Canal. I do not know exactly where it is but it is due here in a few weeks (San Francisco).
The Paddle Shifter-gate was relatively minor for me. But I was disappointed that there seemed to be confusing information on this subject. I told my salesperson I was disappointed the BMW salespeople were not better informed. THEY should be out on the forums reading all this stuff to help us instead of playing video games or whatever they do when not busy at their desk!!