I've had most of the cars mentioned in the thread including a few more and now have just bought a stage 2 edition. The e46 M3 is a great allrounder but issues seem to becoming more prominent with them as most are close to 100k miles now and are expensive to fix I've had 2 and the second was a nightmare ( cracked piston and headgasket failure )
The mk2 focus RS is a good car but a bit in your face and draws attention and I did regret paying 20k for one as you start noticing a lot of cheap parts on them that you might miss after a test drive. The engine is a peach though but a stage 1 eddy is less than half the price and a much better car IMHO.
Get a dsg edition and you won't look back.