Unless you are familiar with doing your own repairs on Audi motors or have a near by dealer I wouldn't advise you to buy one. Stick to BMW. Anyone can have horror stories about whatever their car may be doesn't mean the car sucks, the owners don't keep up/have good maintenance. Reliability is only defined by your own abuse & attention you pay to your car.

 

my wife has a 2001 TT 180 Quattro, it has just shy of 126k miles on it, it has had 2 timing belts and water pumps and has had the new instrument cluster... bar regular maintenance it has been great due to the preious owner being extremely **** about its upkeep.

Something is only as reliable as the people who maintain it.....

Without our TT we would be stuck in at home as we have nigh on 3ft of snow and ice, fitted with Blizzaks it is like a mountain goat! and has been our lifeline to the world!

I am English and have had lots of BMW's, Mercs, Evo's etc... and all have their strong points. I love BMW due to their reliability and build quality, but again this is down to how they are kept..... i had to have the engine replaced in my last E39 5 series due to the block cracking, so any car manufacturer has their own skeletons. Get a good car of any brand and it will do you well!

 

Hello all,
I thought I would toss in my questions as well on this thread that is asking the same questions I am.
I'm looking for an 04+ quattro hardtop, either 1.8T 225 or the 3.2 V6. I think I'd want the 1.8T just for fuel economy, but I hear the V6 is very nice.

Background info-- I've owned vw's, mitsubishi's, and a year ago bought my first Mercedes. An E430 4matic, year 2000. It had 52k miles, not a ding or scratch, interior was mint. But over the year of owning it, I have found that quite a few little hidden things are not working. It needs suspension bushings galore, lower control arm, upper control arm, it needed ball joints, 2 new front shocks, a tie-rod end is loose, new ties... Now I found that the a/c/heat is malfunctioning as well... Trans not shifting smoothly even after dealer fluid and filter change. All in all I bought a car for $14k a year ago, that was only worth $11k. A proper thorough inspection would have revealed all these things that were wrong with it, I would have gone back to the seller and said, hey it needs $3k worth of work to get it up to par. The seller would have said ok, f*&k off, and waited for someone else to come along and be ooohed and ahhhed by the nice shiney benz, and not bother to inspect and discover the hidden problems. So ideally, I should have got the car for $11k and done all this stuff to fix it. I did not negotiate well because they were offereing so much $ on a chevy (gasp) trade-in that I had. They literally offered $3k more than carmax offerred for that trade in. So I figured i was getting a good deal, getting so much $ for my crap trade in. So I got the car for $14k, dropped $3k additional in it, into it now total of $17k, still not totally fixed, it needs another $1-2k worth of work... and the car bluebooks for $11-12k if I were to get lucky and sell an old V8 benz in this market.

So with that bitter pill of an ownership story that I've had over the last year, I'm thinking about a TT, possibly a bmw M3 or Mroadster/coupe, or even a lexus IS300 manual. But off all those, I think the TT would be most practical. It would be AWD, like my 4matic, and would handle the Ohio winter well. And my gas guzzling would go from a 4.3L v8 to a 1.8 4cyl.

Ok my first question is this....

Human size... I'm a big guy. I'm 6'1" 270lbs. I'm basically an NFL fullback, minus the speed. Are there any big dudes on here who drive TT's ? Would I fit in the car? i did not fit in a honda s2000 that I test drove, but I know the S2k is notoriously a cramped car. I just barely fit in a bmw Z3, but I'm thinking the Audi TT is a big larger than a bmw Z3 or Mcoupe, on the inside. What do you all think, interior wise? I have never even sat in one.

 

TT is about the same size of any simular 2 door car. This only applys to the front seats. If you can fit in a sunfire, colbolt, sc2, ect, you well be fine. I think it's pretty roomy, but it's not a truck.

 

I'm 5'11" & my co worker is 6'3" we both fit fine in the car but I wouldn't say a TT is good for everyday use. That by far IMO, I know achttung & outtie uses their's daily maybe they could shed light.

 

I just bought an '04 1.8 auto w/o Quattro. I love it! I've owned a Quattro version in the past (when I lived in NY), and I see no meaningful difference. The non-Quattro is a little lighter and gets better gas mileage. As far as the timing belt issue, try to find a TT, Quattro or not, via a Certified Pre-Owned TT Vehicle endorsed by Audi of America. It'll add either 50,000 miles or two years to the original warranty which covers timing belt issues provided scheduled maintenance has been done.

Good Luck!

 

What would you say is wrong with a TT as a daily driver? I see the TT as kind of a well dressed AWD vw gti and I rocked one of those as a daily driver for quite some time.

any reliability/durability issues that are on your mind?

 

For me i don't see why it isn't suited as a daily driver?.. my wife drives hers every day without issue (touch wood) and i use it over weekends. Its nippy and fun, great for parking as it is very small and is good on gas! For me that fulfills all the criteria for being a good daily driver.

In my experience cars that are too pampered and only let out in good weather suffer from more problems than those used the way they were manufactured to be used. Its all about getting the right one, get one with lots of history and proven track record and you should be fine....

I'm 5"11 and 225lbs and fit it in comfortably.. the seats are adjustable with respect to height too so lowering the seat gives good head room as well as a little more variation to distance from the pedals....

 

See my FAQ, and if you want auto more than FWD check out the auto 3.2, it'll be easy to live with and be sporty. If you are fine with a manual, get the quattro, I'm never buying FWD again after getting my 225 The timing belt is safely changed at 60k, or maybe higher if your new water pump has the new metal (vs. old plastic) impeller; its the impellers and belt tensioners that usually fail. A TT is a German car, so it does require a bit more maintenance than a Jap (and American?) car, but IMO it also has a lot more personality. Regardless, the car looks like nothing else and its a bank vault, so just make sure you buy some kind of TT