I was wondering the same thing if I should wait for the AWD or go with the regular RWD. I live in the Poconos and believe me we get our fair share of snow and ice. In particular, just the last two years have been the worst for ice than I can ever remember. We just had a major snow storm in the last week of March. It was raining, then it turned to ice, and then it changed over to all snow and we got pounded with about 14", with about 2" of solid ice under it.
I know comparing BMWs to Chevys is apples and oranges, but my sister has a 2000 Blazer and she was stuck in a parking lot, even with the 4 wheel drive. It was impossible to get that Blazer out of the parking lot. I know, I was there! So we had to walk home in this storm, and as soon as we made it out to the main highway, traffic was backed up for miles, and the snow plows were struck!! The industrial highway plows with 10 wheels were burning out the tires trying to make it up the hill, as we walked right past them.
All this was going on while I was contemplating getting the 325 with RWD or AWD, and I realized when it does snow bad, usually the streets are just dry by the next day anyway, after the plows
get to them.
I hope you enjoyed my amusing little anecdote. That's a true story, by the way. But the point is, get the AWD if you think you'll be better off in your mind (because you won't want to make payments on something you didn't really want), but I personally couldn't wait until the fall, and after this incident, I kind of look at it like there's no controlling the weather, you know?