Ownership Verified: Finally got myself a German soft top

[CrzRsn]

As a lot of you know, I've been looking for a European convertible to buy for the summer. Looked at a bunch of different models. E36 M3s, E46 330s, Z3s, Saab 900s, Saab 9-3s, etc. After being screwed over in 3 BMW Z3 3.0 private sales, I decided to turn to dealers, and since at this point I needed a car ASAP, I had to take the first decent thing that came by. Got all the finances taken care of. Went to the RMV today to pick up plates. And brought it home with my dad. Now all I have to do is learn how to drive it . Luckily tomorrow is July 4th, and I don't have work, so Victor and I will be practicing for a long long time.

So without further ado, I present to you - my 2005 Audi TT Roadster.












And the proof pic



Its a 2005 TT quattro with the 225hp 1.8T with 126k miles on the clock. Everything on it is good from what I can tell so far. Timing belt was recently replaced so don't need to worry about that for a while (will still get it checked out). The carfax shows 1 minor accident over 80k miles ago, but truth be told, I have no idea what was damaged. All the panels are original, and all the mechanics underside and in the engine bay look untouched. The passenger side headlight is clearly newer than the drivers side, so maybe that was hit and borken. There is one minor scuff on the passenger side, but its almost unnoticeable. There is evidence that the previous owner did leave the top down in the rain once - some discoloration on some plastic bits and rust on the seat rail - but all the exposed electronics work fine so I'm not too worried about that. Overall I'd give this car a 75/100, but I'm still really happy with it (yes, I know we only brought it home less than an hour ago).


Huge thanks thanks to Victor for putting up with all my bullshittery and helping me look at cars (and test drive them for me).

 

[_HighVoltage_]

What do you mean learn to drive it? Doesn't it drive like...oh I don't know...every other car?

Congratulations though! Looks good.

When does your job at the hair salon start?

 

[LeVeL]

There is evidence that the previous owner did leave the top down in the rain once - some discoloration on some plastic bits and rust on the seat rail...

That can also happen if the previous owner left the top down really often and/or for extended periods of time. The inside of my top has a lot of white spots too but it's because one of the POs had a hardtop so the soft top was always down.

What do you mean learn to drive it? Doesn't it drive like...oh I don't know...every other car?

Manual


Mike, as I told you earlier, come out to Boston tomorrow for a manual driving lesson (bring Victor obviously) and then for the July 4th BBQ. I can even meet you half way, around Fram or something.

Anyways, glad you finally got a car. Glad you finally got a convertible. Glad you finally got a manual!!! Congrats!

 

[Aston Martin]

"Are you off to the hairdressers, sir?"


Like the colour combo.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Welcome to the moneypit club

 

[LeVeL]

Btw, top down and windows up is akin to wearing flip flops with socks

 

[CrzRsn]

Btw, top down and windows up is akin to wearing flip flops with socks

I know. I put the top up for the first set of photos, then took the top down for the 2nd set and forgot to put the windows down.

 

[Spectre]

What do you mean learn to drive it? Doesn't it drive like...oh I don't know...every other car?

Congratulations though! Looks good.

When does your job at the hair salon start?

No, it doesn't. The TT is known to have more than a few holes in the handling envelope involving a pronounced tendency to spin and even when they bandaided that with more draconian electronic stability control, it still had ridiculously severe understeer at times - worse, it *still* could try to spin when you weren't expecting it.

Important bit starts at about :50.

That's pretty 'normal' for how the TT starts spinning. And yeah, Quattro actually makes the problem worse.

So, yeah. be very, very careful with this thing. It's not as murderous as the Porsche 930, but it definitely is one of the more user-hostile cars to come out of Germany since then. Don't drive it if you're not going to pay full attention to it.

 

[LeVeL]

Important bit starts The only even slightly exciting thing happens at about :50. Then you can stop watching.

FTFY
It looks like he just went in too hot and lifted causing it to oversteer, which should be very easy to correct in an AWD car. That said, the TT does suffer from understeer quite badly.

 

[Spectre]

FTFY
It looks like he just went in too hot and lifted causing it to oversteer, which should be very easy to correct in an AWD car. That said, the TT does suffer from understeer quite badly.

Don't know that he did or not, but I have seen TT's transition from severe understeer to major uncontrolled oversteer in a split second with no throttle changes. That chassis is just too close to square to react well, IMHO.

Still, for all that, the TT wasn't a terrible place to spend time in and there are worse vehicles to commute in.

 

[_HighVoltage_]

No, it doesn't. The TT is known to have more than a few holes in the handling envelope involving a pronounced tendency to spin and even when they bandaided that with more draconian electronic stability control, it still had ridiculously severe understeer at times - worse, it *still* could try to spin when you weren't expecting it.

Important bit starts at about :50.

That's pretty 'normal' for how the TT starts spinning. And yeah, Quattro actually makes the problem worse.

So, yeah. be very, very careful with this thing. It's not as murderous as the Porsche 930, but it definitely is one of the more user-hostile cars to come out of Germany since then. Don't drive it if you're not going to pay full attention to it.

Wow, that was pretty bad. I've done a similar thing in my car but the nose dive was more severe (my mistake) and the oversteer was about twice slower, hence easier to control. This really looked like snap oversteer.

 

[Spectre]

Wow, that was pretty bad. I've done a similar thing in my car but the nose dive was more severe (my mistake) and the oversteer was about twice slower, hence easier to control. This really looked like snap oversteer.

That's what it is. The chassis is just a bit too short. It's worth noting that the second generation TT, while still suffering from awful levels of understeer, is less likely to spin because they added two inches to the wheelbase and made the entire thing five inches longer - that changes the polar moment considerably.

 

[Labcoatguy]

It sounded like he'd hit a bumpy patch or gone off the road, because there's a sudden increase in rattling before the abrupt spin. I had a similar incident with my Mk2 MR2 on a wet road, turn and all of a sudden I'm pointing in the wrong direction. Careful on the twisties.

 

[CrzRsn]

Just discovered my first set of problems. The first 2 are skin deep and not major - 2 bulbs are burnt out - one in the front, one in the back. Shouldn't affect anything, but if I do fail my inspection because of them, the dealer will replace them for free.
The other, will have to look into it more. The car doesn't detect when the driver's door is open. It doesn't bong, doesn't give me the notification on the dash, and the window drop down feature doesn't activate. Will need to find the switch for that tomorrow when its light out. Hopefully its not going to be too much trouble.

I need to find a repair manual for this car.


Also just went out driving with my dad. Making progress... slowly.

 

[prizrak]

Now get a tune for it www.go-apr.com

 

[JimCorrigan]

Congrats on the little roadster! I'm not a fan of 1st gen TTs myself (I do really like the 2nd gens, though), but it is very cool looking and should make for a great summer runaround.

 

[CrzRsn]

Thanks everyone!

Just discovered a hidden surprise! Found the first aid kid in the truck, checked the manual where it should be, looked in that compartment, and found a hidden 6 disk CD changer!

One of these things


Only problem is that it doesn't have the trays the disks are loaded on. Oh well. I'm probably going to end up removing it and wiring in an AUX connector for my iPhone.

 

[Spectre]

The iPod kits go in the cabin, not in the trunk.

 

[CrzRsn]

The changer is in the cabin. Thats why I was confused.

Its in a little cubbyhole behind the drivers seat, with the wire going under the center console. Its going to be a pain to get out, but I don't need the changer, and I'd like the iPod cable, so I'll deal with it.

 

[Spectre]

The cables are usually male and so is the cable from the iPod adapter. Those are usually installed by removing the head unit, disconnecting the cable and plugging the adapter directly into the head unit. They may also allow the changer cable to be plugged into the adapter and allow the changer to be used as well.

The cartridges will either be Pioneers or Alpines.