Attractive two-door
front wheel drive sports car manufactured by
German automaker
Audi. with MSRP varying from US$35K to US$45K. The TT stands for
Tourist Trophy, a legendary auto race. The TT possesses many of the same rounded lines of the redesigned
Volkswagen Beetle, but with a much lower roof. In fact, it kind of looks like a
VW Bug that got halfway crushed under a
hydraulic press. 1999 was the first model year for the coupe, a full three years after it was announced as part of a design study at the
Frankfurt Auto Show. In early 2000, Audi released the
convertible TT
Roadster.
Very high demand kept the TT in short supply in 2000, with many customers waiting for well over a year for factory custom orders to be filled. Because of this, many Audi owners have been able to sell their spots in line for thousands of dollars on
eBay, kind of like
scalping low numbers at the deli. Other TT owners have been able to drive their cars for several thousand miles and resell them at the sticker price, defying the rule that new cars lose half their value the moment they are driven off the lot.
In early 2000, Audi admitted that many TTs purchased without the optional Electronic Stability Program have experienced handling problems at high speeds and offered to retrofit ESP onto customers' cars just to be sure.
Audi offers a
quattro package which boosts the car's
horsepower from 180bhp to 225bhp and enables permanent four-wheel drive. The quattro package also shaves the 0-60 acceleration speed a full second from 7.4 to 6.4 sec.
The TT won the "Best of What's New" award from
Popular Science magazine in 1999, as well as the iF Seal of Approval for design excellence from iF Industry Design Forum
Hanover.
Consumer Reports rated it a best buy, and Auto Europe named it the best new car of 1999. In 2000, Automobile Magazine gave the TT its Design of the Year award.
Guys, if you've seen the
Dudley Moore movie
Crazy People, you'll understand that owning this car will dramatically increase your chances of getting
handjobs from beautiful women. Given the lack of space in this car, that's about all you're going to get until you can make it to a
motel.