I haven't heard anything about problems with the automatic transmission. The thing to do would be to test-drive one for yourself to see if the performance of the transmission and the road noise level is acceptable to you.

I couldn't agree with you more on the cassette deck. How much additional profit do you think Jaguar dealers will make from selling CD changers though? All things are designed a certain way for a reason. :)

As for the colors available, Jaguar knows that when it is first available, they'll be able to sell every X-Type they make regardless of color. It is a common trick of automakers to vary color selection by year to renew buying interest. Don't be surprised to see new colors appear and other colors disappear in the second year of production for the U.S.

Alan