Had three now, bought my first 1.8T for the build quality and Golf GTi's are cool to own. Traded that for a V6 4Motion (big mistake!), then had a spell with x2 BMW's, changed jobs and went back to a Golf though this time the 1.8T 180bhp!
They are cheap to run for the performance, are well built compared to other things for the money, they are reliable if left standard (you can't expect a remapped diesel or petrol to behave the same as a standard car!) and they hold their money better than most things.
Down side with them is they are costly to insure..