I'm not buying an ED30 for speed or Top Trumps value, I'm buying cos we wanted a good new 3dr hatch that would be reliable, well built and nippy. I fancied the GTi for a while but thought the ED30 would be a better bet as hopefully it will hold its value well.
To me speed is not top of the list when paying 23k for a car, I race a Tomcat which guess what has 230bhp and would eat any R32, for a fraction of the cost approx 1/10th of the list price. If I prang it I buy another.
VW have blatently pitched this car directly in between the R32 and std GTi, but they will all sell and be good cars, its horses for courses.
Dave