Tough, timeless and great to drive, the Mk1 Audi TT is a terrific used buy. There are many variants but one of the most interesting is the 1.8 T Sport quattro, launched in 2005.
Its four-cylinder engine made 237bhp and 236lb ft, which is impressive by any standards, but a weight-loss regime stripped out the rear seats, climate control, parcel shelf and spare tyre to save 50kg, taking the weight to 1390kg. Not quite feather-light but enough for 0-62mph in 5.9sec.
Audi didn’t stop there. It relocated the battery to the back of the car to improve weight distribution, fitted stiffened and lowered suspension and a rear strut brace and installed a couple of hard-shell Recaros. As a final aesthetic flourish, the roof was painted black.
New it cost £29,995, but today the most expensive are around half that while the cheapest we saw was £3995 for one with 168,000 miles. Somewhere in the middle at £7200 is a rather fetching 2006-reg example with 81,000 miles. The private-sale car, which has been kept in a heated garage, has a full service history and is finished in red and black. It’s had a new cambelt and water pump, and a new clutch, says the seller.
Were we seriously interested, as with all TTs we’d check it’s been fed a healthy diet of 5W-30 fully synthetic oil and that the Haldex traction unit has had fresh oil every 20,000 miles. Unless it’s been repaired, rust isn’t usually an issue with aluminium-bodied Mk1s. Instead, we’d check the suspension is bearing up along with the interior, which can take a hammering from those stiff springs and dampers.
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TT's are pretty tough
Actually most of the body was galvanised steel not Alumninium. As been mentioned thinglike the Pod go wrong but can be reapired for £130, hardly a deal breaker. But having said that all 20 year old performance cars go wrong but unlike most 200ps+ 4WD ones TT's are cheap to repair as they use plenty of Golf parts (Front discs £45, pads £30).
The important expensive bits rust free body, electrics, engine, gearbox will do 150k+ miles. It's the smaller cheap bits that are the problem.
It's endurance is borne out by way of plenty £2,500 run around cars doing 180k+ miles. For that reason it'll be a long time before their value goes up.
Audi tt tough ?