I fly the Dash-8 myself and have done so in the last 5 years. The previous company I was working for had both atrīs and dash-8īs. There were some guys that had flown both types and seemed more or less equily happy on either one but there are some differences offcourse.
I would have to disagree with the alpine flyer on the subject of the fms not being nice integrated in the Dash-8. The ones we fly are the last 300īs to come of the line and they were fitted immediatly with all the goodies and it seems to be a nice system.
The main thing about the dash-8 I donīt like is the air conditioning system. It was designed for the dash-8 100 in the 80īs with 37 pax. So if you fly the same system on the 300 with 52 pax...well guess we all now what happens in 38 degrees or so, not pretty. Also the design was so bad that the guy in DeHavilland who made it up was actually fired (however they did not redesign the thing).
I guess it remains a close call. But if you think about the pax, well the atr-72 can take 20 more for the same price. Nice (not considering de Dash8 400 here, for I think it is a different plane alltogether). If you go for the good looks, well the dash is not the winner of the beauty contest for sure, but it will beat the atr any day hands down, hahaha.
Greetings from a turboprop jockey.