Golf Sportwagon 4Motion. Throw some PP brakes, coils or strut/spring combo, IS20 or IS38, diff, and tires and you’ve got the same performance of a golf R with more utility. You can also get a GSW 4Mo for less than $20K, so after all the above you can still be below 30K, especially if you get a DSG which only requires a ~$500 TCU tune instead of a 1-2K+ clutch job.
I’m obviously biased but after 3 GTIs I just can’t go back to FWD. food for thought