The waiting list for the RS is not as long as you may think. But saying that it's also not as great as car as first thought.
It's a good car no doubt but it doesn't offer everything you expect from a RS. Great through the twisties but power delivery is quite boring and the seating position is very high and almost MPV like.
Of all the cars I drove last winter (S4, S3 s-tronic, S3 manual, Cupra 290 DSG, Focus RS, Audi RS3 previous gen) to find an alternative to my Classic Scoob the RS was closest to delivering.
There was an awful lot of hype drummed up by Ford and I think a lot of 'sweetening' of test driver reviews. But now it's been out a while these opinions and reviews are changing. From the initial reviews I thought the RS would end up winning EVO car of the year or at least be near the top. But it ended up near the bottom and well and truly beaten by the Golf Club sport !!!!!!
Have you thought about the Mercedes A45 AMG or CLA45 AMG.
Second hand ones are under £30K. I hadn't considered them last year as I assumed they were FWD but they are 4WD. Hence now on my radar when fitted with the Aero kit and AMG performance exhaust
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifie...fiD0CLWcr0X.03
With regard to the Saf......keep it if you can
I sold my scoob in 2011 and regretted it. But I was lucky enough to buy it back for the same money 18 month later. I don't regret that happening, as it has really made me appreciate what it is and what it does for me.