Get one, you won't regret it.

There are three basic types of foam pads on the market - cutting, polishing and finishing (forget about wool pads with a D/A polisher) and you'll really only use two of them, the polishing and finishing. The action and power of the D/A is usually not compatible with a cutting pad and quite often you'll get some light hazing of the paint. That's fine as long as you know it going in, but most people don't so they get all freaked out when their paint doesn't look perfect after using the cutting pad and then get double irritated when they find out they need to use a second pass to remove the hazing.

If you use a polishing pad, like the Meguiar's W8207, in conjunction with something like the new Meguiar's Ultimate Compound you should be able to remove the vast majority of minor defects from your Crossfire. The paint on these cars is relatively hard so you tend to need something with a bit of oomph to correct it. Ultimate Compound makes use of some very specialized abrasives found in Meguiar's top of the line professional products but in a more user friendly formula. It leaves a beautiful finish so there shouldn't be a need for an intermediate step.

Use a finishing pad, like the Meguiar's W9207, to apply your wax. This makes it super easy to apply a very thin, uniform coat of wax, which is what you want. Most people apply wax way to heavy - it's just a waste of product and makes for more difficult removal.

Oh, and there is no industry standard when it comes to pad color. So when someone says to use a yellow pad or a white pad, find out who's yellow or white pad they're talking about. It can make a huge difference.