I did consider an 'R' when looking for a replacement to my ed30 as I think they look great and never having had a Haldex equipped car I fancied one for novelty value alone tbh, I got cold feet after test driving one and talking to a friend running an S3 though due to a marked decrease in mpg over my ed30, and as a daily driver doing 22k a year a big jump in running costs would have took the shine off the R for me personally..
My mind was fully made up when I realised for my budget I could either get a 3 year old (on average 30-40K miles) R or a much newer in my case 7 month old 6k miles ed35 for the same money, no brainier tbh