2003 Audi TT Quattro 225HP yes? no?

afterburn 549 · 06:35 AM

I have seen the light.

billybek · billybek's Garage

One of my neighbors had one and sold it after he had to have his transmission torn apart to replace a stamped steel part that fatigued and broke.
He spent the money to fix it and got rid of it pronto after getting it back.

rwest · rwest's Garage

Went for a test ride at the dealer when they first came out and thought it was pretty nice.

I think they look like a 911 that has melted!

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

I had a friend with one of those when they first came out. Lovely little jewel of a car, felt very heavy. Small, but not cramped. How do ze Germans manage that?

VincentVega · 09-21-2019, 08:26 PM

^ start with a Golf

Solid platform for small yet functional car. Should be cheap, try it out.

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

My 01 TTC was amazing and saved my life in a crash. You could do FAR worse. I would have zero hesitation buying another clean example.

unclebilly · unclebilly's Garage

Audi is German for ‘don’t own off warranty ‘.

YMMV

javadog · 09-22-2019, 06:09 AM

I’ve never been a big fan of the turbocharged four-cylinder engines. I don’t particularly like their power delivery. If I were to buy a TT, it would have a VR6 engine in it. That’s one of the great engines out there, you should drive one if you haven’t already.

HardDrive · 09-22-2019, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Audi is German for ‘don’t own off warranty ‘.

YMMV

This. Big time.

HardDrive · 09-22-2019, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javadog

I’ve never been a big fan of the turbocharged four-cylinder engines. I don’t particularly like their power delivery. If I were to buy a TT, it would have a VR6 engine in it. That’s one of the great engines out there, you should drive one if you haven’t already.

I disagree. I had a turbo Beetle. I thought it was a lot of fun. There was some lag, but if you kept it spooled up, it was fun. I just wish the car didn't magically start falling apart the moment it was off warranty.....

javadog · 09-22-2019, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

This. Big time.

Here we go again...

I’ve probably owned more Audis than anybody on this forum and that’s just not been my experience.

It’s funny how some people single out Audis as being unreliable, without noticing all of the problems of Mercedes, BMW, and everybody else.

javadog · 09-22-2019, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I disagree. I had a turbo Beetle. I thought it was a lot of fun. There was some lag, but if you kept it spooled up, it was fun. I just wish the car didn't magically start falling apart the moment it was off warranty.....

If you kept it spooled up...

The problem I had with them was they had too abrupt a transition between no boost and on boost. I’ve driven endless turbo charged cars, they were part of my stable for 30 years. I’m familiar with their characteristics and how to drive them. Some are quite a bit better than others. I happen to not like the small four-cylinder turbos used by Volkswagen and Audi.

Do you have very many miles in a car with a VR6 engine? More power, a linear power band and one of the best sounds in the automotive world.

onewhippedpuppy · 09-22-2019, 06:19 AM

If it's been well maintained, why not? The 1.8T is a great little motor, and at the 225 HP level should make for a quick little car. They get excellent MPG too. If you want more just check out APR, you can make that into a monster. They are cramped under the hood and suck to work on, but that's typical of most modern cars. Expect frustrations with plastic parts that get old and break, that sort of stuff tends to nickle and dime you. Great seats, nice interior, AWD means you won't get stuck in the winter.

HardDrive · 09-22-2019, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javadog

Here we go again...

I’ve probably owned more Audis than anybody on this forum and that’s just not been my experience.

It’s funny how some people single out Audis as being unreliable, without noticing all of the problems of Mercedes, BMW, and everybody else.

Oh, I'm certainly not letting Mercedes off the hook. I love my E350, but the engine light has been on for a considerable portion of my ownership. Bloody secondary air injection pump is an complete design failure. If you get 2 years out of one, it's a miracle.

I guess I'm singling out Audi because the owners that I have know were quite bitter about their experience.

And yes, the turbo boost did come on rather abruptly....but that's what made it fun

. Nothing....nothing.....WHOOOOOSHHHHH...whoa!

petrolhead611 · 09-22-2019, 07:06 AM

A friend of mine on the trade told me that the VR6 engine has to be removed for access to many repair issues,far more often than would be needed with most cars

javadog · 09-22-2019, 07:26 AM

I haven’t heard that, at all. That said, sometimes what the manufacturer thinks about something is not found to be true once others have looked at the same problem. As an example, I’ve recently been looking at W221 Mercedes with the 12 cylinder, turbocharged engines. Mercedes will tell you that you have to remove the engine to change the engine mounts, that is proving to be entirely false.

In any event, a VR6 is one of the most reliable engines out there. Most of the minor problems occur from abuse or lack of maintenance. I don’t know of anybody that ever had an issue with one.

Like most of the complaints I hear about Audis, they often come from people that have never owned one. Sometimes they’ve never even driven a car that they complain about. The Internet is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

MMiller · 09-22-2019, 08:43 AM

I had an 2002 for a couple years. Nice car, fairly quick after a tweak or two. Held up well, no issues other than maintenance while I owned it. Only complaint I had was if you pulled up to close to a stop light you can't see the light for the roof line.

Alan A · 09-22-2019, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javadog

Here we go again...

I’ve probably owned more Audis than anybody on this forum and that’s just not been my experience.

It’s funny how some people single out Audis as being unreliable, without noticing all of the problems of Mercedes, BMW, and everybody else.

It’s been mine. I’m at 100%.
The sample size is small but it won’t be increasing. The stereotype about electrical issues proved the old saw about stereotypes existing for a reason.

Oddly the VWs - and I’ve had a LOT of those - have mostly been solid. But we only ever ran them to 40k before trading them in.

masraum · 09-22-2019, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javadog

Here we go again...

I’ve probably owned more Audis than anybody on this forum and that’s just not been my experience.

It’s funny how some people single out Audis as being unreliable, without noticing all of the problems of Mercedes, BMW, and everybody else.

When I was looking at cars, I considered many of the German/Euro manufacturers. I know lots of folks that have had amazing luck with BMW, swear they last forever and never break. I've also heard from tons and tons of folks that have had nothing but problems (ditto for the little sibling, Mini) (I heard what felt like a 50/50 mix both on the board and off). My guess is that QC is not great, and it's a crap shoot whether you're going to get a good one or a bad one so I ruled that out. For Volkswagon/Audi cars, I heard fewer folks griping about problems, but I still did hear a bunch, so in my mind, I assigned that a 3:1 good:bad ratio for comparison. Then for Porsche, it was probably more like 85-92% good. Every make is going to have problems. It's the nature of the beast. BMW seems to be the riskiest of the bunch at least from the anecdotal evidence that I gathered. VW/Audi is better and probably worth the risk, especially considering they should carry less of a premium for initial purchase price than a Porsche, so you could always save the difference just in case you have one of those issues that pops up.

Hell, Porsche has issues too, and they may have been far more rare, but having you IMS kill your motor would be a big one if you were off warranty.

masraum · 09-22-2019, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javadog

If you kept it spooled up...

The problem I had with them was they had too abrupt a transition between no boost and on boost. I’ve driven endless turbo charged cars, they were part of my stable for 30 years. I’m familiar with their characteristics and how to drive them. Some are quite a bit better than others. I happen to not like the small four-cylinder turbos used by Volkswagen and Audi.

Do you have very many miles in a car with a VR6 engine? More power, a linear power band and one of the best sounds in the automotive world.

Turbos are fun, but, if I could have a turbo with 300hp or have an N/A motor with 300hp, I'd probably rather have the N/A car. Of course, if the options were N/A motor with 300hp or turbo with 425-450hp, that would probably be a different story.