I had a Grey CTR (Best Colour) and I did love it, its a harder car to drive fast than a golf and i would probably say it was a little more fun to zip down a country lane in
but I do prefer the golf as an overall package.
The low down torque makes it easy to drive fast and the interior is a much nicer place to be (especially if you upgrade the head unit to one of the Mk6 ones).
I definitely prefer the exterior of the golf too, Civics are a bit Chav-tastic, especially now you can get the early ones from around £5k upwards, GTi's seem to have remained above that level thus far.
The one thing i would say is that the engine and mechanics on the CTR seemed to be more reliable and it was a lot cheaper to maintain, VW stealers really take the piss.
Wouldnt touch the new CTR with its spaceship looks that will date uber fast and that ridiculous spoiler... if i could afford it right now the MK6 GTi would be my ideal hot hatch and if you get a good example the MK5 is pretty damned close.
Cheers,
R