Gotcha. I assumed the Auris was for the wife, not that you had purchased two for yourself. Well, double grats!
I'm a GTI driver myself, a MK5 I'm about to sell. I've absolutely loved it but it's time to move on. Is it too early to ask you how the switch feels? From the abundant low RPM torque of the 2.0T to the higher revving GT-86. I've looked at it (the BRZ/FR-S here in Canada) but I was hoping they'd release a turbo version with a bit more "go". Admittedly I haven't driven one, but I'm underwhelmed by the spec sheet. I'd love to see the real-world opinion of a former GTI driver!
It's a bit early because I just started the break-in period (no revving over 4.000RPM, no hard braking etc.) and slowly am getting accustomed with the GT86.
Back Story of my decision was the following:
The GTI was my company car for private use for the last three years, and most of the kilometers on it were done while on job or for commute.
Since the GTI was a company car, I didn't do any racing or stuff, the Autobahn and the A-/B-Roads were the sole areas of operations.
My field of operations is quite large and covers a lot of curvy mountaineous roads as well as several of Autobahn, most of which is speed limited, though.
In everyday traffic, the GTI felt (don't laugh) overmotorized, even when I was able to floor it, the rush only lasted for a few kilometers because of the density of the traffic over here.
On A and B roads, the GTI felt a tad front-heavy, the ESP and stuff kicked in quite early for my tastes. Never felt insecure or out of control with the GTI, though.
Since most of the Autobahns I use to get to business appointments are speed-limited anyway, the GTI was kind of overkill and left me with quite a dent in the salary.
The main factor for abandoning the GTI was the ETA on the Navigation system: for most of my drives, the difference between flooring it and driving civilized was between 2 and 5 minutes, time which would be lost on inner city traffic lights, construction sites, railroad crossings and the like anyway.
Edit: it was the DSG model, which was great to drive but caused some kind of "detachment" from the car for a lack of a better word. It shifts perfectly, way better than you would do by manual, so after a few hundred miles, I didn't even touch the paddles anymore and let the DSG work its magic. Downside of that: Interaction with the car while swimming with the trafic was about none, made it boring. Step in, start engine, set NAV, travel from point A to B, repeat for the way back. That can be had with a smaller engine as well.
No need for a "fast" car on a job basis for me. So I went with the Auris Hybrid for the work-related mileage and got the GT 86 as the pleasure vehicle.