Fighting the desire for instant gratification

NecioVato

OP,
I came from a 2010 GTI and I'll be honest, I still miss my GTI even though I love my Z. Plain and simple - the GTI is a really good car. My advice would be to invest in a downpipe and go stage 2 tune on it - I would say a good tune from APR and you'll love the GTI since it will be pushing quite a bit more torque and HP than what comes standard from the company - enough to keep up with a stock Z.
Regardless, good luck and I think you should keep any car if you are upside down and like others have said - the longer you wait, the better prices you'll find on a used Z.