I bought a new 07 Limited 6 spd for $23K in Dec. 07.....liked it so much a year later I found a new 08 Limited automatic for my wife for only $17K. I put 89,000 FUN miles on the stick by April of 2013......but after grandchildren started arriving it was clear we needed an SUV. Since the automatic was still very low miles/pristine......I reluctantly let the 6 spd go. Trick to smooth shifts was to keep the rpms up. Another reason I kept the automatic was it was almost the very last XF built before production stopped on Dec. 17, 2007.