[swartzentruber]

Originally Posted by dereksM3

You would be surprised how many people would and have currently. There's also a fair bit of former P car owners buying them because of the added functionality with minimal loss in performance. There are a surprising number of former M car guys over on there forums and not one is unhappy with there purchase...

Hatchbacks are a love it or hate it but your opinion isn't shared by everyone...this coming from a person who has owned an M3 for quite some time...

Agree strongly with this sentiment. I recently added a Golf R (replacing a long time mostly track R32 that I got rid of after it blew an engine), and the car really does seem to be one of those cars that is more than the sum of it's parts. Everything just works so well together. I've been surprised how well I like the car. It doesn't have the solidity of the M3, but it has a nimbleness the M3 doesn't come close to. Luckily I have both, but I could easily see some people preferring the R depending on how they prioritized certain characteristics.