Ahh the old 180 vs R33 debate.
I was saving/researching for 18 months untill I knew both the s13 and r33 like the back of my hand. I had a budget of 17.5k and decided the 180 was the car for me, based mainly on the fact that performance was my biggest concern. Shopped for another 5 months trying to find the perfect 180 for me.
Ended up buying an r33 with fmic, bodykit, safc, ebc, hks super drager low k's etc etc, running low 13's for $14,500 and never looked back.
My advice is to just shop around and wait for a good deal, in all the fun of getting our turbo cars we forget about our loans. My 5k loan was hard enough to pay back