Thanks Peter, yes its from a main dealer (Listers, Droitwich), though things seem to be working properly again now ... clearly there must be some underlying issue. Will see how things go for a while before contacting the dealer. Would appreciate any experience from other XF drivers, is the gear selector usually fairly reliable? has anyone had similar problems ? (it sounds different to the original posters problem, but I guess could be same cause (faulty gear selector motor).