I've got about 20 hours or so on type on the Eagle and I first flew the aircraft when I had about 70 odd hours. I found it quite a challenge to fly well, very hard to land but a lot of fun. Not a good trainer at all, very limited on range and space, also have the problem of having throttle in left hand, right hand on stick, very hard to do 'normal' cockpit duties without letting go of the stick.
It was very difficult to start, starters made metal in the examples I flew which meant early overhauls on the engines, engines also had other problems, I had one fail completely on base leg, FCU shut down on it, water leaked into avionics and both examples I flew with 1000 odd hours had surface cracks in several areas around the main gear.
Flying in my endorsement in a turning stall it whipped us inverted very quickly which suprised the instucter as well as myself! It had the gliding ability of a brick going down at about 800-1000fpm at best glide. Other 'weird' thing was the rudder pedels, you push initally for rudder, then harder for brakes, quite hard to get used to especially with the castoring nosewheel.
Other than all that....it was GREAT fun to fly, roll rate was very impressive, at even at MTOW it climbed at well above 1000fpm, 115-120kts cruise was more than possible, lovely sports aircraft but honestly probably a little too difficult an aircraft to use as an initial trainer, experienced instructers admitted that they found it the most challenging aircraft to land even after flying aircraft like 210s/Barons/Navajo's....
I've also flown about 20 hours on the new 172R model, I quite like it but find it VERY gutless in comparison to old 172M/N/P models, and downright scary at times at weights around MTOW. In the climb the one I fly anyway runs out of 'go' at about 5000 feet anywhere near MTOW, seems to have a very coarse prop, you only get 22-2300 rpm on takeoff....of course gets some extra speed in the cruise....avionics etc in it are just great though, but this of course effects your useful load.