I moved from a civic type r to a mkv gti I had 3 - 1 ek9 mega highly modded 208 bhp from a 1.6 N/A and 2 ep3's - first one was a face lift with 220 bhp and the second was a preface lift highly modded to 250bhp 175 lbft ,as said above the CTR's are a hoot to take out for a blast or on track but once you start to approach your 30's hard to live with on a daily basis lol!
It's like comparing chalk and cheese really there totally different cars,the gti is much more refined and the build quality is in a different league,in terms on reliability the Hondas for me win hands down.
But like said above when the ep3's became affordable enough the chavers descended and they started getting a bad name and even worse modifications !!