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Rest of the Web Says We've gathered reviews from Edmunds.com, Cars.com plus live Tweets on this car. See What We Found »
AUSTIN, Texas — With the design and mechanical verve so evident in the stunning new Audi TT, can true blue-eyed-soul for Germany’s perennial number three be far behind?
For all its turbocharged powerplants, sophisticated quattro four-wheel-drive systems, and athletic designs, Audi hasn’t made a car that has truly captured all of its brand essence since the Quattro Coupe stormed into existence in the early 1980s. Packed with technology and imbued with great four-wheel-drive handling, the Quattro Coupe was a universal symbol of what Audi wanted to be known for: the art of technology. Since then, Audi’s vehicles, from the lowliest 80 sedan to the sharpest A8, have shown flashes of brilliance – but none have sparkled from stem to stern.
With the TT, Audi has rediscovered the elusive formula of technology and passion that can shoot a brand’s profile into the stratosphere, even without selling hundreds of thousands of cars. Other four-ring fans may argue, but in our minds the TT’s mechanically pure lines and harmonious performance make it the best Audi offered yet in the U.S. – the first Audi with the soul of a world-beater.
Style and substance
The chief element it its success, regardless of its hot 180-hp turbo four, is the TT’s styling. Melding elements of the VW Beetle, Porsche 911, and Audi’s own quattro coupes, the TT has made a graceful transition into reality from its conceptual birth at the 1995 Frankfurt auto show. Elemental lines – stylized parallelograms surrounding circular headlamps, side cutlines that delineate the engine bay (especially in our tester’s silver paint), and graphically grabbing wheel styles – tautly define the TT’s road stance.
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2000 Audi TT interior |
















