Whew! Thanks for the positive answers! And yet more things I did not know about the XF that I do now (especially with regards to rims). I know reds are not that uncommon, it's just that from what I can see on autotrader or cars.com, or other online sites, or even EBay, I rarely see red, so I guess the red owners really hang onto their cars. Or there are reds, but automatic.

I did test drive a convertible that is available locally; it's the nice metallic graphite color, which is another color that I like. And the drive in the convertible was very surprisingly quiet, which is something I cannot say for a former convertible we used to own, a little Z3. I don't mind the convertible, but I'm not yet sure how my insurance company might feel about that. Here by the border, car theft across the international bridges is a big problem (all you really need to do is just DRIVE there), so cutting through the convertible top to access the car is pretty easy, hence the increase in insurance. Plus, I would rarely use the convertible top, since I'm one of those transplanted NYers (work for the federal gov't here) that has yet to acclimate to the weather here, and driving with the top down in the summer would give me sunburn, windburn, and heat stroke all at one time.

I'm not 100% sure, but I thought that the SRT6 only comes as automatic. I want a standard for the simple (and selfish) reason that our trusty '95 4Runner, '98 BMW323is and hubby's DoNotTouch '69 Camaro are all automatics. Since year and to a point, price (as long as I don't have to get a car loan, which I do not want at this time), are not big dealbreakers for me, I want to be able to get The One For Me. And considering that all three of our cars were purchased either out of the state or way up there in Dallas and Houston, shipping a car here is pretty much second nature to me, and oddly enough, ends up being less expensive than expecting a dealership to find me a car. My husband still feels bad that one of the reasons that I sold my 240Z was because we were in a dire financial state, which we recovered, thank goodness, so my future purchase of the XF is something that he literally is giving me complete freedom (like he ever had a choice )

Thanks for the input.

Too many choices ....