I was in a similar position when we ordered our 20i in the U.K. as not many buyers here choose the petrol engine. Therefore the dealers only had 20d's for me to test drive in M Sport guise. Therefore I drove the 20d but asked to drive a car with the 20i engine so that I could get a feel for power delivery and engine noise. They gave me a 220i M Sport auto and this helped in me deciding that the engine had the torque required and helped me understand the characteristics of the engine.
Not ideal but better than going in blind....
DCT's in my experience of other brands are great when driven manually but the gear changes are not as smooth as a traditional auto when left in automatic mode
