Had this for about a week and I can't wait to get behind wheel in the morning. I went with the leather seats to keep the memory function and cooling. I also have a 5 year old who I was worried would destroy the cloth interior.
Coming from a B9.5 S4, I am loving it so far. I always missed my 8V S3 (Second picture). I loved the smaller size and the transmission in that car. My plan was to move into an RS3 as I ruled out the B10 S5 immediately. I drove the RS3 but thought I would also try the Golf out after seeing so many amazing reviews on it - value for money on this thing is crazy, especially up here in Canada. In the end I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra $30,000 on the RS3.
Only two things that would make this the perfect car. The stereo is not great and the piano black on the interior. Luckily after lots of reading on here, I know that those are two things that can be fixed easily.
Edited: S3 Model as pointed out by ArseneWainy below.