I did it the same way as the OP. I had a 2.2 Sport for a year before I got my CR-Z GT in January this year (61 plate). I found it to be a really nice car, handled amazingly well and was reasonably 'pokey' around town.
The down sides that I found was that the MPG wasn't as good for a Hybrid as you'd expect, not that I bought it for this anyway, with around 40-45mpg mixed driving. I did a trip to Belgium for the Spa 24 Hours in it and didn't manage much better fuel economy than my tuned Clio 182 two years previously (51mpg over 1000 miles to Belgium and back to Dorset). The lack of speed on a motorway/dual carriageway was the other downside. The rear seats, or rather lack of them, didn't bother me as I don't think you buy a car like the travel with more than 2 people in.
I did find the rear visibility a little poor, but that improved once I fitted the Spoon Sports rear view & side mirrors. I did also fit a Takeda Momentum intake setup, which gave a lovely noise and did seem to free up the engine very slightly I found, although that wasn't cheap at nearly £400.
Since the end of September I've had a 58-Plate FN2 GT Type-R, which I'm finding amazing.
I know this is an old post, but hope this might help anyone looking at getting a CR-Z, as they are great little cars.