Sadly, all the cars my dealership hands out to testdrive are auto trannies. That way they're a *little* more sure the engine will keep on working, and you don't completely trash the car

GTA, there indeed is more room in the 3er coupe than in a 6er. Headroom and legroom in particular. The 6er feels more high tech than this, because of options like AFS and Dynamic Drive. Also, the materials in the 6er are a whole class better, as is the sound system (I don't think you can have Logic 7 in the 3er???).
However, the 3er feels more nimble and, dare I say it, more fun to drive....in particular with a manual gearbox I think.
I seriously consider one, but I think the M3 version this time

And the cable is for the iPod indeed. What I missed though, was a nice user interface for my iPod in the iDrive screen. The was nothing to see on the LCD screen, other than AUX OUT. No titles, no nothing