there are whole lot of debate on selecting oil alone on maintenance section especially regarding group 3, 4, 5 motor oil, viscosity, blah blah blah...
i been to lot of forums and did lot of research but it seems like lot of people prefer to stay with either GC (german castrol 0w30) or M1 0w40. some people uses RP (royal purple), RL (red line), AMSOIL EUROPEAN FORMULAR which are known to use PAO base oil (means fully synthetic), as lot of synthetic oil is not really synthetic (highly refind oil base; group 3 oil). which one is good? i don't know. there are just too many debates mixes of opinions, some bases with facts and oil testing, some just plain dumb opinion like "this oil is going to destroy your engine because it's not LL01".
in short, after all that research, i've decided to settle with TOTAL Quartz INEO MC3 5W30, which meets bmw LL and also in grade 4 oil...
it's graded as ACEA A3/B4 (High performance and or extended drain/For direct injection passenger car diesel engines)
it's graded as SM which is newest API standard.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/API_ratings.pdf
some more useful link about general understanding about API and ACEA rating and information on motor oil in general
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html
whichever oil that you use is totally your choice and as long as it works who give rats ass right? one thing is clear and looks like everyone agrees though; do not wait until 15k miles schedule maintenance suggested by BMW. You will find out that a lot of poeple are doing it 5k, 6k, 1.7k instead of 15k. sooner you do it the better. i personally coming from JDM scene, i just can't imagine 15k oil and lifetime tranny oil. i just laughed at them at the dealer... right in front of SA...