My brother is giving serious thought to one of these, over the BMW 228/235. Tbh I think I'd also rather have the FRS over the BMW, if I wanted the practicality side of things as much as anything else.
It's just a huge shame they toned the styling down so much, the mk2 FRS was absolutely perfect in that regard.
Going back to the subject at hand, unfortunately it looks like we're still not able to escape the power contest yet. Every time a new car comes out it has more power than the last one, and on the odd occasion it doesn't it gets slated (FN2 CTR, I'm looking at you). It may look great on paper, and every one likes a bit more power, but it's genuinely getting to the point where usable power levels are getting harder and harder to find. We've a 400bhp Golf coming, FFS!