LOL @ Stew - I understand what you mean, it is useful to have the passenger side hand free... One of the VERY few things I dislike about the manual is taking my hand off my babie's when I change gears... awww, how sweet...
But I have to say one thing - the BMW certainly did allow me to do a certain amount of bed hopping, but at the end of the day the people who were just impressed with the car, for the sake of it's image, didn't impress me.