BlackOptic

As you may have seen, I have recently started cross shopping a TTRS with a 911. While this article is the more fair comparison... I am wrestling with the same argument as is made here.
I probably won't find myself on the track much. So, why buy a car that is only fun because it can go sideways? While I like the idea of 'taming the beast', I am not sure a road going tool is really where you should be playing with fire. (Apologies for mixing metaphors.)
Unless you just drive in a circle 'for the fun of it', one day you'll want to carry your weekend gear. Usability of a TT hatch is huge.
This is EXACTLY why I am interested in a 911. While the TT has now survived 3 generations and is a design icon... the 911 is considered a design legend. As a car I might keep for a while, this is the draw for me.

isb

timzcat

I don't think the argument is any different for many cars in the Audi lineup. The R8 to Lamborghini is the same argument. The R8 is a DD capable luxury supercar. The Lamborghini is more visceral and I imagine gets annoying as a DD.
I don't DD the TT RS and doubt I will get rid of it unless it is for the R8. The other RS cars are great but I came from the S4 and just don't need the 4 doors and space.

Rapture

I see this all of the time and one of my biggest pet peeves. People state opinions as facts and many people think they are facts. This can really confuse people.

VGM911

You didn't mention if you read the referenced Car and Driver article, so I'll ask here if you did.

Second, my comments about the findings of the road test comparison were just that - simply comments and observations on that specific article, not the entire compendium of C&D articles, other automotive journals, and forum comments that you reference.

I'm an Audi TT fan as you are, and I certainly agree that the storage behind the seats (accessible by the passenger and driver) is convenient, but one has to acknowledge that the Cayman has two trunks, the rear one being reached through the rear hatch. In addition, the ledge on top of the engine is also configured to accept additional limited storage of items. Admittedly., the mid-engine configuration puts the firewall directly behind the driver/passenger and thus impinges on interior storage room. But overall, the Cayman holds more than most two-seater sports cars, and plenty of room for stuff bought at Costco.

Some comments on this forum are offered by people who have never driven a TT or a Cayman and/or have never owned either. If I'm going to voice an opinion, or hear an opinion from others, the opinions so offered are more substantive and valuable if they come from the perspective of real world ownership or thorough road testing/reporting.

You are entitled to your opinions, and so am I. I don't mind that many of the people in this forum have a passion for the TT. It's a wonderful car deserving of that passion. This comes through in the Car and Driver article, too. But to discount the Porsche because of a simple Audi-bias, is a narrow view that doesn't contribute to the meaningful discussion of this one C&D article, nor the findings therein.

You didn't mention if you read the referenced C&D article, so I'll ask here if you did.

As for the engine sound, the article states: "Rest in peace, flat-six, and long live the turbo four! The more time we spend with 718s - and the further into memory that six's wail fades - the more we like the four. This thing sounds like a goblin, all mechanical grumble and spitting overrun. There even a little aural treat when you turn the car off and the four grumpily clatters into silence as though not all its parts stop moving at the same time."

Peace. And to each, their own.

VGM911

You do have a way with words....nicely said.

VGM911

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BlackOptic, congratulations on your ordering of a 911T....fantastic car (and a design legend )!
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Vegas-roadster

What irritates me is Audi's decision to jack prices of the TT across all models over the past 5 years. When the Mk 2 TTRS arrived at $56,851 base MSRP, it was praised by most reviewers as one of the best bang for the buck sports cars offered. Car and Driver's Lightning Lap track tests clocked it faster than Porsches costing $90K and had a time almost equal to the R8. Even with this pedigree, after the initial buying frenzy there were new 2013 TTRS sitting on Audi lots for a year. Now Audi has jacked prices and for the TTRS it is a 14% increase to $64,950 whose price is virtually identical to the Cayman S and in the realm of the Corvette etc begging comparisons with those cars and eroding a tenuous market position. I continue to be amazed, and thankful, that Audi USA continues to sell the TT in the US at a money losing rate of about 2000 a year.

Data1of9

Where exactly can you get a Cayman S for under $65K? If you add the options that come standard with the TT-RS you're past $80K on the Cayman...

BlackOptic

Believe me, having spent the last 61 days with nothing to do but configure random Audi and Porsche cars... There is a lot of value in the $65k TTRS. Well, maybe only as compared to other German sports cars. I figured that a similar equivalent to a $74.6k TTRS, with 3.8 second 0-60, extended leather, dynamic suspension, LED headlights, all all the trimming would be $141k in a 911. (Only using a 911 because that is what I was looking at, and it was a 2+2 with similar performance times.). If you made the TTRS any cheaper, you'd hear even more backlash from the peanut gallery on how a TT is just a Golf.