hi preston1989 and welcome to the forum...best thing is to have a test drive in both and see what you prefer, although i wanted an auto i had a drive in a couple of manuals and to be honest i didnt like the clunkey change from 1st to 2nd im told you get used to it but just didnt like it but thats just my opinion, i find the auto effortless to drive and it suits me, but you should try both, as for the windscreen surround sure they only come in silver over here as do the side strakes although wouldnt be too hard to colour code them, you can get a chrome cover for them both but quite pricey for what they are, believe in the states they did a base model XF with the surround in black...regards...chris...