All dark colours are very hard to keep looking clean. I have had this issue with metallic graphite colour, dark blue and dark green. When washing the car it is hard to see the dirt and often another pass of the spray or wash mitt is only seen to be needed as the car begins to dry. For my area white is one of the easiest colours to keep looking clean because our local dust is light coloured!

 

I hear Zaino has a solution for black cars that works wonders. I haven't tried it yet but a lot of car people I know swear by it. I've always had black cars for one reason or another. Either it looked better in black or the black was the best deal.

 

I use Turtle Wax Color Magic Car Polish Black. XF looks good

 

One of the items that you might want to consider with a 2010 XF, if you plan to keep the car for long time and put mileage - The maintenance cost (oil changes) are more expensive in the 5.0 since it requires Castrol SLX

 

Hackman what is da thanks

 

It's a dual action polisher/buffer.

Example:

 

I bought one of these, have experimented on our 2007 Charcoal Xterra with very good results, I went with all the Griot's products and Klasse sealant.

Very satisfied with the polisher, the Griot's polish products seem good for the amateur, it doesn't seem like they cut that aggressively which makes it hard to screw up. The flip side is, it's more work than you're imagining...

Griot's Garage 6" Random Orbital - Griot's Garage



There's a very common Porter Cable unit out there as well, it seems the two units above get better reviews are are a bit more purpose built than the Porter.

 

Just an FYI about mileage and oil changes.

I can't comment on the 4.2 but Imy 5.0 just got 30.6mpg on a round trip from Davenport, IA to Peoria, IL with the cruise set at 74. That was using E10 91 oct gas. Had to go to the dealer for some work and the oil changes are $110 every 10,000 miles. not bad at all.

I ussually average 22 MPG 50/50 city/hwy daily goign to work and back (40 mile round trip)

 

If the purpose is a car that "looks" least dirty when it is, looks least scratched or dinged when it is, looks newest even when the finish is compromised, then get a silver or light grey car. It'll look as good 3 months without a wash as a black car three days after a wash. But, you must like a silver car or a light grey car. If you don't then all the ease of maintenance is moot since you'll hate every moment you spend with it.

Personally, I happen to like Silver, Light Metallic Greys and Metallic Whites best. I also like them more or less equally. If not anything else because I think chrome accents look best against a less contrasty background. Amongst these, Silver is the easiest to keep looking clean so I tend to gravitate towards them. Metallic Whites look slightly better than silver, but they are not always available as a color choice -- they don't make the XF in a pearl or metallic white, just a plain white called Porcelain. But, hey, it's the COLOR of a car, to each his own preference right?