thats pretty subjective… if you see the 135i in the flesh its actually a pretty good looking car, particularly in white, black or grey.
The interior of the Audi looks awesome in pictures, but in person… its really not, and if anything seems to be of lesser quality than the bmw. The exterior of the Audi is actually also rather boring to look at in the flesh, but it does have a nice aggressive front end, and is definitely more boy racer looking than the bmw… in a classy way, but if you buy an S3 because you tihnk its better looking than the bmw… your pretty much throwing very heavy stones from your delicate little glass house haha.
There is a reason the S3 was not released in the United States… it would be too expensive, not fast enough and generally unappealing.
I would never buy a Haldex driven sports car, in the same way you wouldnt buy a motor bike with air conditioning.

Every time I want to drive it, I would have to stick a paper bag over my head for two reasons: so that I didn’t have to look at the car, and so that I wouldn’t be seen with the car.

It is that bad.

The Audi S3 is a nice refined sports hatch, with a quality interior, but has a particularly harsh engine with notable levels of lag between gear changes. Its very uninspiring to drive, and whilst being completely competent, its leaves you with a somewhat sterile feeling. It understeers into corners, and you can really feel its fwd bias (having a haldex based system). Its also around $75k drive away which is not that cheap.

The R32 , which is about to be superseeded is also nice and refined as per the S3, but without the Audi brand appeal… its interior is slightly more racy, but nice nonetheless, and it has a nice easy , albeit slightly underwhelming power delivery ( in comparison to the others in the group).What the R32 does have in its favour is one of the best sounding exhaust notes ever to have come out of a 6 cylinder car… its a pity its just not that fast.

The Bmw 135i is a rear wheel drive coupe with all the luxuries youd expect from a bmw, even electric seats with seat memories is standard. Its not the most aggressive looking car, but in white or black it does look pretty mean. Its got a cracking 225kw 3 litre twin turbo motor from the 335i ( which is actually underrated its more like 240kw and 430nm of torque) , and is the fastest and most powerful of the bunch, as well as having the smoothest power delivery of the turbo group, and can more than match the R32 for throttle responce. Equipped with an electronic LSD, this car was only half a second slower around wakefield park than a new DCT M3 according to motor magazine. Jeremy Clarkson came out and said its the best Car BMW make, and Top Gear Australia also praised it highly. for Around $80k drive away its probably the fastest thing you can buy for under 100k, and its a bmw ( stock it will do a low 13 1/4, and with a vishnu chip/tune ( about $1k) it will do low 12s).

Pretty easy choice for me, the BMW is in its own leage

GTI Pirelli has the same engine for $20,000 less……(minus AWD though)”

The Pirelli GTI has a reworked version of the GTI’s 2litre turbo – not the 3.2 L V6 from the R32.

Given the money I’d definately go for the S3 – trouble is I can’t fit the family, the dog and my large frame at the same time. So I’ll stick with my Passat V6 wagon until I can afford an R36.

If your pick is the R32, you’d better move quickly :)

GTI Pirelli has the same engine for $20,000 less……(minus AWD though)

Choice becomes fairy easy if your criteria are

Daily driver
People must fit in back
Turbo lag unloved
AWD required

= .:R32