I find that the more powerful diesels (including the new BMW 320d I drove last week) feel very quick until you actually try to drive quick. Hope that makes sense, I mean there is bags of torque in normal driving and they are every bit as good (and often better) than petrol, but i miss going though the gears and changing at 6000 rpm when i am in the mood.
It is also a very stacated drive, boost - whoosh - change gear - wait - boost - woosh - change etc.
Having said all that, you can't argue with the figures and mpg and to be fair, my decision to by a 1.8t was based on the fact that all the sim ilar aged diesels were so so expensive. We have an audi a4 with the same engine (tdi 110) and it is a great tourer, but has been expensive with lots of niggly engine management / cat convertor air sensor probs, which may have eroded our fuel savings.
At the risk of facing the wrath of the 2 litre boys, I would say you can't go far wrong with a 1.8t or tdi in anmy flavour. Just don't think you got a bargain and buy an SDI