Frank are you keeping your current airbag/wheel and getting yours recovered? Or are you buying a new steering wheel/airbag combo fresh from Ivan @ DCT?
I just ordered this wheel (waiting on arrival now) from Sebastian Jamroz, he's a proprietor of a steering wheel recovery place in Gorlitz, Germany, and his work is about half the price of what Ivan @ DCT or Don @ Dallas Custom Steering Wheels quoted me:
BMW E39 NFL X5 E46 Lederlenkrad DAUMENAUFLAGE incl. Tuning Teile Sport Lenkrad | eBay
This is his auction i used (you can browse his other auctions for styles), I got the following, in case you can't read German:
-Added thumbrests (original E46 wheel has none)
-Added thickness to whole wheel (you can see it in pictures)
-Black Stitching
-Solid leather top and bottom, black, perforated leather on sides of wheel
Normally these overseas guys charge a core which is refundable on return of your wheel, but since we are overseas you either have to find a seller who is willing to sell you a wheel with no core (basically you just pay the core cost), or if you don't mind shipping yours overseas, they can recover and send back. I opted for the first option, as I didn't want to park the X for a month.
My final price was 110 euro for the auction on ebay, plus 40 euro core charge, plus 34 euro shipping to USA = 184 Euro or $250!
Dallas Custom Steering wheels wanted 500 bucks for the same work, plus 18 shipping. Ivan @ DCT quoted me similar pricing.
Sebastian speaks clear and understandable English in his emails and is quick to respond on ebay if you inquire with him, and the best part is that I ordered on a Wednesday and he said it would only take 2 days to prepare and ship, and he sent me 2 pictures of the finished wheel before it shipped, even though i told him i wanted the same look in the auction. Great customer service, and I will be posting pics and impressions when my wheel arrives...
All of the pics are of E46 wheels (one is epdarks old 4.6's wheel), for the facelift sport wheel I'm not sure how much thicker you want it, I'm sure a slight increase in thickness would be nice. The pre-facelift sport/E46 wheel is horridly slim, which is why I needed increased thickness and the thumbrests, it feels so small in my hands and I have smaller hands to begin with.
Some sellers aren't keen on doing flat bottoms, as far as the paddle shifters go isn't that something you have to retrofit (I know relentlessone did on his 4.8), not sure if the steering wheel wrapping servicers do that. As far as carbon fiber and red stitching, should look nice as long as it's tasteful.
Not sure what DCT is quoting you, but this wheel looks amazing, it's the E83 M-sport wheel (same airbag as your 4.8is)
CARBON Leder Lenkrad BMW E53 E83 X5 X3 ORIGINAL M-POWER | eBay
700 euro plus shipping = close to $1k Canadian dollars, but the E83 M-sport wheel itself is at least 500 bucks that I've seen.
If you're recovering your own wheel and re-using your airbag I'd definitely recommend someone closer, however if you are looking to buy an additional wheel like I did (as long as the extra core charge isn't outrageous), there are a ton of guys in Germany/Poland that look to do great work on ebay.de.
Just search the terms "e53 lenkrad" or "e53 sport lenkrad" and see the results.
For example, this is a fully re-wrapped facelift sport wheel:
BMW E53 x5 Lenkrad mit LEDER beziehen NEU BEZIEHEN Nappa + gelochtes Leder + M | eBay
Most of the sellers can customize to your liking, let me know what you do!