3 Audi's in the direct family....Also, I worked at an Audi/Porsche shop awhile ago..
-The 1.8T's get great gas milege. They handle great and w/ quattro you can run so many cars down because you can go so fast w/o worrying to much about road conditions (like any quattro audi). You can chuck any quattro Audi around like it's nothing and they are incredible stable at high speeds. There down side is there lack of power. Even with a chip they are ehhh slow. Full exhaust, Chip, intercooler and you have a fairly descent car w/ tons of torque, but still not really fast by any means. Add some minor suspension mods and let me drive and I bet it would take a very talented driver in a fast car to catch me in the Mountains. They have a great chassy, and again are just easy/fearless cars to drive fast.
The 3.0's are great and smooth and they have hardly no maintenance compared to the 1.8ts. We almost never had 3.0's come in for problems at the shop. They are great if your not concerned about all out speed but if you are you can still supercharge on for $$.
If it were my money i'd get a 1.8T and an Avant at that. So rare, so sexy and tons of potential if you want to spend the money.