Thread has went way off topic, and there are far too many folk that I care to bother quoting...however.
Mr Comparison man - how about you go like for like for the era:
http://www.fastestlaps.com/comparisons/ford_focus_st-vs-vw_golf_mk_v_gti.htmlHandling isn't all about how fast a car goes round a track. It's about how it feels to drive. The feedback from the steering, the way feels changing direction, stopping, accelerating etc etc. The Mk6 GTI has a trick differential which no doubt helps it feed power down through the corners whereas the ST's open diff allows the very high, low down torque, to light up quite easily.
There's obviously a fair few badge snobs on here that dismiss the ST purely based on the badge on the front. I owned one for 3 years and for a car with alleged misaligned panels, poor fit dash and crap drive train, it certainly sounded better both inside and out, than a Golf GTI. Fuel economy was not relevant, I was getting about 300 miles to a tank, standard, and I'm not much more on the GTI. If I cared about fuel, I'd have bought a diesel.
As far the eating turbos theory, I was and still am an active member on the FocusSTOC, and failing turbos is certainly not common.
I bought my GTI because I fancied a change of scenery, a supposed quality upgrade. Now a car with less than 8k on the clock sounds like I'm driving about with a hole on the B pillar and a hand brake that feels like it's connected to a bungee cord instead of a cable.
Back on topic - the car is booked into Volkswagen to have the door seals looked at.