Hi mckrob
In answer to your questions:
On the continent you could get the JTD as a Sporting but they never did it in Right Hand Drive. Fiat always threatened to bring an 'Active Sport' JTD to the UK (appearing on numerous price lists) but never did it.
No 6 speed manual option, but with so much torque it is not a problem. Top-gear pulls about 33mph per 1000 rpm (i.e. 3000rpm only appears at 100mph!)
The JTD was availaible in the same colour as all other ELX/ HLX models, so the usual tiziano red, white, Indie green, black, teseo blue, astral blue, the light and dark metallic greens (can't remember the names), Steel grey (silver to you an me), Orion grey and that awful orange colour. I might have missed some off
As the fishdude said, the rear brakes are drums.
Refined or loud is a difficult one to answer. At idle it sounds like a London Taxi and displays all the typical traits of a diesel, it can also be noisy accelerating at town speed. However, when you are cruising (at 20, 30, 40 or whatever) the engine is almost silent. Also accelerating at speed the engine is quiet. At 60, 70, 80mph the engine can't be heard.
The only problem I have is road noise because the JTD gets 185/60 R14 tyres which are much wider than the 1.2 16v ELX (they are the same as the HLX tyres). I have always had Michelins which are quite loud on poor surfaces, but have just recently put some new Pirelli P6000's on the back that are much quieter (although they will probably wear quicker).
I will be selling mine in a few months if you are interested? 2002 '02' JTD ELX 5dr in Teseo blue with a red interior (which looks loads better than the blue interior). Has 54,000 miles on the clock, Full Fiat Service History, good condition, driven every day, maintained properly regardless of cost, 100-watt sub-woofer, Electric sunroof, ABS, 2x airbags etc. etc.
