- Whoa.
What?
Audi TT?
Why? Huh?
What? Who?
Qué?
All right, here's the thing, the Audi TT is an underdog.
It's a car that has about four people requested it,
and it deserves a little limelight, okay?
In the world of hot hatches, Euro saloons, and wagons,
there was one car that had a little bit
more of a difficult time than the rest,
but people still loved it at the end of the movie.
I'm Alex, Alex.FI in the socials,
and today we're gonna be talking about
the underappreciated, honestly quite little badass,
one might say, the one, the only, the Audi TT.
(pounding music)
(exhaust pipe backfires)
(pounding music)
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The Audi TT is a two door coupe that was made by Audi
and started way back in 1998,
the year of the Monica Lewinsky scandal,
Daimler Benz completed a merger with Chrysler,
and of course, the dot com bubble.
Who knew the world wide web
would be used to watch people talk about cars
in their living room while eating pizza.
Who knew?
From the get-go, the Audi TT was meant to be
a vehicle that could be shared
across the Audi and VW family.
It had a share of parts from the A4,
the A3 Mk IV, the Skoda Octavia,
it used bits and pieces from other models,
such as the Quatro four-wheel drive system
and a whole bunch more.
From a design perspective, the original Audi TT
was very early 2000's.
It had a sloped front and rear end,
taking a futuristic cue that looks
something out of I am Robot.
And although they weren't extremely ugly,
they were a little bit different.
The car name itself, comes from the motor racing tradition
of the Isle la Motte Tourist Trophy motorcycle race.
For the longest time,
I actually thought it meant twin turbo.
I was wrong, single turbo.
TT, just makes you wanna cry with these acronyms sometimes
that Audi and Mercedes and all of them do
because E55 is a 54, doesn't make sense.
3.0T should be turbo, it's been supercharged.
It's whatever.
Right off the bat, the TT didn't receive the greatest press,
as their early models were involved in some accidents
due to high-speed driving.
Apparently those sharp turns and abrupt corners,
were not the car's friend.
Those accidents resulted in Audi installing
an ESP system, ASR system, and just a little spoiler.
Even with its less than stellar initial reception,
the car was nominated for Car of the Year in 2000,
made its way onto the Top 10 of 2000 and 2001.
Continued to get some serious love
throughout the generations, as well.
I almost said ASMR and I could only imagine
the car's infotainment center talking to you like,
"Hey Buddy, you're gonna need
"to go a little bit slower, okay?"
Just like all Euro things,
the TT came in a million different trim levels and options.
Powertrain was a 1.8 liter turbo charged motor.
It come in all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive.
Had a sport model.
3.2 liter VR6 model.
Different interior trims,
depending on how deep your pockets were back in the day.
When the second generation came out, life was looking good.
The car hit the ground with some styling cues
that actually look proper and new, no big deal.
The second generation had one top gear
coupe, coupee, coupey in 2006.
It took a trophy back as the World Designed Car of the Year.
It took home the Fifth Gear Car of the Year.
Auto Build Most Beautiful Car.
It won What Cars Best Car for seven years straight.
And even if you though it was even more unimaginable,
iSeeCars named the Audi TT as the longest lasting sports car
likely to exceed 150,000 miles.
I don't think anybody knows that.
The second generation would see
the introduction of the TT RS,
a fighter jet variant of the TT platform,
and if you are looking to buy one,
and you wanna be the cool kid, this is the one to get.
People loved it.
We'd see another generation hit the streets in 2014
and confuse your grandmother for thinking
you owned an Audi R8, it had an angry front end,
virtual cockpit interior, which makes me cry
if you ever need to replace it
because I remember the B5 A4 center dash screens
and those haunt me forever.
It had sharp lines.
It had your typical creature comforts,
that generally don't belong in a sport coupe car
and it was pretty good looking.
Now listen, the new gen is super nice.
I'd talk about it a little bit more
but it's still a little up there in the price point, okay?
We're not there yet.
And hey, we're looking to hear you
on why you'd want to own an Audi TT,
not the history and I gotcha bud, okay?
So you want an Audi TT?
Well grab the Starbucks caramel macchiato
and hop in those heated seats and let's taco 'bout it, okay.
The first gen Audi TT is a decent car to pick up
if you're looking for a modifiable Audi
that isn't your typical B5 S4 or new gen A4.
However, it did get smacked by the ugly stick of the 2000's.
It has a hard time fitting in with the current styling
because it's like a bubble that's upside down in the water.
It's like the top part of a vanilla cupcake,
it's just rounded top, no creases.
Tastes beautiful, just don't wanna wat it.
The first gen Audi TT also it was fun
but it wasn't inherently as Speedy Gonzalez.
It was modifiable, yes.
Was it modifiable a lot?
No.
The first generation was a landing point
if you're looking for a fun, quirky coupe
that can get you around in the snow
without breaking the bank.
Plus, they are still an Audi,
so you can throw your Rotiforms all-wheel drive snow tires
and KW suspension on it and call her good.
The second generation is honestly one of my favorites
with the introduction of the TT RS,
you can snag an extremely nimble Audi
for a fraction of what they were new,
while still enjoying all of
the performance aspects of the car.
They look sharp.
They confuse people and are completely under-appreciated car
in the States for some reason.
Biggest issue here still is that
they cost a good chunk of change
and when comparable to the competition,
like the BMW One Series or even the Audi owned A5 models
and stuff like that, people have a tendency
to choose the latter.
The third generation is cool
but it's way too pricey for the people like you
and people like me.
I'm just sayin'.
It is a good looking car.
Slam it on the ground, call it good.
Wrap it, three piece wheels, golden.
Then put in exhaust, an intake on it,
you'll be a happy man.
Problems on these car revolved around
their typical turbo'd German cars.
First generations were littered with vacuum lines
and boo slicks and if you gotta really, really want it,
it had a tendency to crash itself.
Second generation's you have some bad turbos.
Ignition coils, which is a typical German,
usually Audi, thing.
From the modification point of view,
there's not too much on these cars besides the basics.
Most go up with Rotiforms because well, Rotiforms,
tires stray away more towards the all season or winter tires
because their daily drivability
and suspension remains to be coil-overs,
than air right now, at least for the time being.
The Audi TT is a car that is genuinely underappreciated.
It was made to be a crossbreed
of different Volkswagen platforms
that a driver could enjoy around the curves
without being confined to bad interior or bad experience
or terrible depreciation and everything in between.
It did well, enough to warrant three generations
and numerous awards apparently, that surprised even us.
How did it win those things?
What do you think about the Audi TT?
Drop a comment below, let us know of course.
And of course if you wanna let us know
another car for us to being with,
there's like three people said Audi TT,
that's what we're here for.
We listen, it's the thing.
And don't forget to subscribe,
otherwise, you're missing out
on the great content like this.
Wheels, Tires, Suspension,
FitmentIndustries.com
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
We will see you later.
Peace.