Project Car: 2010 BMW 135i M-Sport

Typically people buy themselves iPads, iPhones, designer purses, hardware tools, etc during the Christmas holiday. I on the other hand buy cars. This is the second time I bought a car in December. The first time was in 2005 when I bought my first entry-level luxury car, a 2006 Lexus IS 350. That was probably the worst car buying decision I ever made because it ended up being a lemon (1st year second generation IS models suck). And worst, I bought it for more than I should have paid for it. MSRP was roughly $46K. Anyways, since then I've always bought used luxury cars with low miles.

My latest purchase was no exception. I needed another car since I was driving the heck out of Hub's second car. To the point it broke down on me, twice. The first time was after I left work and the car stalled on the on-ramp to a major freeway. The second time was a few days later and it stalled again but this time a few houses from our place. While I could have drove Hub's main car (a Honda Ridgeline), I'm not a truck driver. Men should drive trucks and women should drive anything but trucks.

Anyways, a few days before Christmas, we drove to LA to buy another car. I was set on a BMW 135i because 1) It was affordable and 2) I could mod it to a 1M. My budget was around $25K and we happened to find two cars in that range. The first one we found was in Montclair, CA and it was listed for $24,800. That one didn't work out because the front bumper had a bad paint job. The second one was located in Covina, CA and was listed for $25,900. Hubs was more excited than me when he saw the car as it had the M-Sport package. An hour and half later, I signed a bunch a papers and drove 1.5 hours back home.

Here's the current specs of the car:

2010 BMW 135i Coupe

3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline 6-cylinder
Horsepower: 300 hp @ 5800 rpm
Torque: 300 lb-ft @ 1400 rpm
Steptronic automatic, 6 speed transmission

Standard Equipment:

Dynamic stability control
Dynamic traction control
4-wheel disc brakes
Heated dual power mirrors/windshield washer jets
Automatic climate control
Cruise control
Rain sensing wipers
Tire pressure monitoring system
AM/FM stereo 
CD/MP3 player audio system
Auxiliary audio input
Xenon headlights with swivel 
Retractable headlight washers
iPod and USB adapter
M-Sport package (Aerodynamics kit, suspension, brakes, pedals, steering wheel, seats and door sills)

18-inch alloy wheels
215/40R18 front; 245/35R18 rear

Now comes the fun part...what do I mod first? Hubs has a couple of ideas but we're definitely going all out on performance. At least enough where the car can still pass smog. No straight pipes.