Never driven an NB, personally the look from the front lacks the pop up headlightyness that I love so much about the NA, which I did own, absolutely loved it, one of the best handling cars I've ever driven, I had the 1.6 and my mate had the 1.8, the one I had was his old one, and, much to his horror, my smaller engined 1600 was faster than his 1800.
Power wise I'd say they are pretty good, although maybe a little underpowered, not by a lot though, once mine had the decat stainless system, cone filter and cold air intake, plus the timing advance mod it was pretty much where I was happy for it to be power wise, I can't remember the exact figures now, but after a rolling road test mine was running about 15 bhp more than standard, not a lot on paper, but on a car that weighs about the same as a tin of beans it was definitely noticeable.