The year was 1996.. I was 12 years old.. and i saw a concept prototype of a car that I fell in love with...
Flash forward to 1999/2000.. I learned that they actually started producing these vehicles and made it my mission that one day, i'm actually going to own one of these cars and the daydreams began..
Flash forward to 2007. while browsing autotrader as i always have to find my "unicorn".. i saw a picture of a VIN sticker for one of the cars and with that i have made an amazing discovery.. My dream car was assembled in my home country (Hungary). Fate? Perhaps.
Well since then i've had good jobs, and numerous chances to actually own one of these cars but yet somehow it never ended up working out.. Well I think I finally captured my "unicorn".
Tomorrow I will be picking a 2000 Audi TT Quattro.
And while no, It's not a fox.. the people who know me really well on this board have known how badly I've sought after this car.
Here is the concept picture vehicle that i've fallen in love with:
(http://germancarscene.com/wp-content/uploads/audi-tt-concept-29-4-08.jpg)
And attached are pictures of my actual car.
Well its no fox, but it is about a 9.8 on the shagi scale
my daily driver is 2009 Audi A-4.....love it. good luck with your new ride!
Hey, Audi's copying the VW Beetle!
J/K, nice lookin ride.
Congrats Alex!
Looks like fun, hope you enjoy it.
Brent
Nice score dude......
Now lets get that vert on the road again. ;) LOL
Hey, are you still gonna mod the eclipse like we talked about?
haha no i'm not because now I gotta sell the Eclipse now to climb out of this hole that i just dug myself into by literally flipping a coin at the dealership to get the Audi.
it sure aint a car I like, but I am definatly glad to hear you caught your unicorn (even if it did put you in debt).... mine is still elluding me... ('96-'98 or '03-'04 Cobra)
Congrats man...
I always thought those were neat until Mitsubishi ripped off the design idea for the newer Eclipse. Is that the 1.8 turbo or 2.0 turbo? Either way they are a fun little motor.
this has the 1.8 turbo
I always did like the Audi TT.
Interesting you joke about that because when I first saw the Audi TT I thought it reminded me of being a Karman Ghia companion to the new Beetle.
J. Mays was in charge of design at VW and Audi before he came to work at Ford so it's no surprise to see his design influences cross over into some of our newer Fords.
It also doesnt help that the Audi TT is assembled in the same factory in hungary that makes the v Dubb engines.
audi and vW are the same.
Make sure nothing but synthetic goes in that little 1.8L I hear they gum up with anything but.
Congrats! Welcome to the darkside. :)
Cool. Are you on the 'Zine?
They sure do. I think part of that has to do with the original owners actually listening to Audi's ridiculous 10K oil change intervals. Thanks previous owner!
Congrats :D
Nice Beetle. I mean TT. :hick:
Should make a nice daily driver, and with fuel rapidly heading over a buck a liter again that lil' 1.8 should make you happy. I'd certainly pimp one...
Congrats. I personally dont care for them (one of my friends had one) and would way rather have the eclipse. Hopefully it will fill that "void".
so since my mom actually has a beetle and i visited my parents, and the cars happened to be side by side, i thought i'd take a few comparison photos.
Not so similar when put side by side is it ;)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v5207/186/100/500247473/n500247473_3188933_3275911.jpg)
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs146.snc1/5413_134236012473_500247473_3188938_266275_n.jpg)
(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs126.snc1/5413_134237727473_500247473_3189016_5117144_n.jpg)
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs126.snc1/5413_134238252473_500247473_3189035_2374566_n.jpg)
it seems that they're the same width and length yet the TT is shorter, thus making the TT smaller than the Beetle.
Which one is which again? :D
LMAO, that literally made me laugh out loud.. :bowdown:
Man,, this is awsome,,
the wife as also fell in love with the TT but we decided to look into a few on Ebay.
We discovered that the earlier years were more classy looking on the inside. The later years started turning up more "hot wheels" interior looks with all sorts of odd paint colors and the like.
I think we concluded that the 2000 or 2001 models were more classy looking,, although I may have my years wrong, Ill bet you might know the interiors we are looking at now.
Fine looking car, maint is probably high.
I LOVE those cars. I was thrilled to get a chance to drive one when it came into the shop I used to work at. Didn't realize I'd have to squeeze to fit into it. Wierdest thing about it was the blue leather interior and the headlight sprayers.
The back seat is pretty much a write off unless you have children under 10. About squeezing in there, I've gained a few pounds over the past year (probably clocking 230 now) and I have no issues with fitting in it, it's quite comfortable actually. Having driven such big cars in the past I am still having trouble adjusting to the fact that this car's so small.
The interior's definitely classy they did an excellent job of keeping it clean and hiding stuff such as the gas cap/trunk buttons, the power window switches, etc.
Even on the exterior, it took me 10 minutes to locate the windshield wiper reservoir. it's actually located outside of the engine bay in the driver side fender.
it also has cool features that I never knew about, such as the headlight washers (or aliens): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Tdgj6fmHo
THis car has definitely met and exceeded my expectations and I am definitely pleased that after over a decade of dreaming about this car, owning one didn't become a dissapointment.
I liked the TT until Mitsubishi stole the design for the Eclipse. Audis are really nice cars we got a few every once in a while at the VW dealership
Cheap 2 seaters (these are $7k-12k here) are always good, especially well built ones. Coupes with a backseat are useless, like our cars, except for storage. I wouldn't mind one as a DD as there aren't many choices of 2 seaters that have decent power and get the fuel economy these do. For a year I was looking for a low mileage stock Del Sol due to this very reason but gave up - people who own one are not the type of people you want to buy a vehicle from.
Nice score. I bet it's quiet inside? You also mention the squirter - did the '00s have HID's?
I shoulda said that I found the front seats to be rather comfortable, but I couldn't even fall into the back seat with the front seat slid all the way forward.
Yep its nice and quiet, and yes mine has the HID's, looks freakin awesome too.
Yeah, i've just been telling people it's a 2 seater car for that reason. It serves no purpose other than trick people into thinking it's a 4 seater car.
I have a 03 VW Jetta with the 1.8T and 5spd. With only a tweaked computer and a K&N it really rips. I can only imagine your little TT is even quicker.
The TT is a peppy little car, I assume yours is a manual? If so its even better! To be honest the Audi/VW thing is pretty nice. The cars on both sides have improved VASTLY. The TT is a pretty neat little car and is in most cases in the older models a pretty good deal. Not nearly as common on the road as a Corvette so its not played out like something like that. I bet it gets looks eveywhere you go.
Yes of course it's manual.
Nobody believes me when I tell them this car's 10 years old. My dad even got pissed off at me because he figured I bought a $50,000 car. It definitely gets looks. Another thing I find weird about this car is that it may look cool in some photos, in person for some reason it just looks 100X cooler.
I'll be expecting a drive-by on pizza night then
I also agree with the poster on the synthetic oil. Make sure you only use it. There's all sorts of warranty issues and engine failures from the turbos seizing from clogged oil passages using regular dino oil. I believe on the newer 2.0T they opened up the oil passages. My wife has a 2003 VW Passat 1.8T and I don't even touch the oil changes since I want all work to be done by the dealer so they can't balk if some day we have a problem. They install Mobil 1 and we have that done every 3000 miles. Her car is a slush box, so the engine is kinda restrained and peaky...would imagine with a manual it'd be a lot more fun! Gets about 24 mpg mixed city driving. Oh, as you know, it requires 91+ octane gas...
Enjoy!
I don't look at cars often so have no idea what they typically go for. For the amount these things do, I don't see how they can possibly stay for sale long. I wouldn't mind a low mileage TT for $10k!
I've "saving" for a house though...
There's a 65k mile one locally for $9k (no pictures). Cheap!
mine has 95000 km (60 000 miles) and converted to USD would be 9k as well.
Also mind you i JUST bought a house as well in May, and I really don't make that much money.. so "saving" for a house is no excuse ;)
Nice ride man! Makes it even better when it's the one you've wanted for so long. I'll be the same way if/when I ever get a Mustang Gt or Cobra.
Back then i was 14-15. and I considered myself to be a successful man if I ever owned one of these. Ever since then I've always seen it as a benchmark. Definitely a good feeling to have a mission accomplished.
you and my bro would get along, lol. He races an '85 coupe, and I gave him an '88 quattro for a daily driver.
So I decided to steal my Brother's Nikon D700 and go on a little photoshoot with this car..
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs270.snc1/9730_152264517473_500247473_3457837_5434517_n.jpg)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs250.snc1/9730_152262067473_500247473_3457812_7692282_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs250.snc1/9730_152262072473_500247473_3457813_7391784_n.jpg)
(http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs270.snc1/9730_152262082473_500247473_3457814_7904562_n.jpg)
(http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs250.snc1/9730_152264187473_500247473_3457831_778862_n.jpg)
Alex it also looks like you had fun taking those pics too. :cool:
Very nice pics!
The car looks good Alex.
Impressive looking pictures too. They are all very good but I think I like the first and the last one the best.
I meant to ask before, does it have some sort of bumpers guard option? I don't recall ever seeing one with the "extensions" like that.
Brent
i'm not sure if it was an "option" because all of them around here taht i've seen have them.. perhaps it was a requirement by law for Canada? i'll look into it.
EDIT: after doing a google search they seem to be called 2.5 MPH bumpers.. looks like it's a north-american standard to have on vehicles. Pretty Gay if you ask me.. Actually I have thought about removing it.
Those are some very Kool pics...........nicely done.
Were going to have to use that camera for pics of the cougar when we paint it.
right we will!
alright in case you're not tired of me posting pics of something that's not a cougar (or ford for that matter) yet, then i'll send one more.. I'm really proud of how this turned out.. so proud that I'm getting it printed on canvas and putting it up in my house:
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs270.snc1/9730_157529817473_500247473_3524700_5708012_n.jpg)
holy .... We have to get my vert up there, and snap some pics.
Oh for sure.. I was gonna suggest that to you earlier actually, but I forgot.
Wow! That is an awesome pic. Should look pimp on canvas.
That's what i'm thinking.. i ordered it on a 16x24 canvas. it should be ready within a week or so..
Well I ended up getting new wheels for the Audi, which of course called for new pics:
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs043.snc4/34516_443970237473_500247473_5900378_3338690_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs221.snc3/20852_443975847473_500247473_5900486_2714266_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs073.ash2/36975_443970197473_500247473_5900376_6941580_n.jpg)
wow, i like them!
You need a pic in front of the chicken coop condos.....lol :rollin:
Nice TT! I really liked these when they first came out. Matter of fact I still like this original body style better than the new versions they have now.
BTW, the TT's lower front grille was used for my 1989 Tbird when I converted the nose to a 1997 Cougar nose and needed a grille to fill the Cougar grille opening.
Nice wheel selection. Any updates on the canvas print? I am curious on how that turned out.
Oh yeah the canvas print has been hanging in my kitchen for a few months now and it came out spectacular! The colours are vibrant and it just looks crisp The first of the updated pics is going to get the same treatment.
Jerry, LOL I've already thought about the chicken coop condos pic but the fence in front ruins it. I should talk to the owners to let me in past the fence with the car
Awesome looking pictures... Congrats
Just to catch everyone up on what the chicken coop condos are.......
There's this place out in Welland, Ontario where the owner keeps building more chicken coops on his property. apparently up is the only space he has left for expansion. lol
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/Stuff%20I%20dont%20know%20where%20to%20put/IMG_4503.jpg)
hahahahah that is such an awesome place, every time i drive by it i can't help but laugh
lol, looks like some north Missouri stuff there. :hick:
Cool pics of your ride though. :D
A chicken coop high-rise.
Now that's ..... ummmmm ... interesting.
Ya gotta luv people.
LOL, yes ... The wonders of Welland. Made me laugh when I saw it