Fun101

In this review, they state that the ride quality has been improved for the 2019. That would be an excellent improvement!

Here's the review:
https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/th...test-audi-tts/

Vegas-roadster

It's the TTS and not the base TT. Second, he's comparing it to the Mk 2 TTS not the 2018 TTS. To my knowledge the 2019 refresh did nothing that would have effected ride quality except another gear in the transmission.

shadeofnardogray

I drove one just to get a sense of delta from the RS, and its a fun car. Basically a really nice golf R, feels more composed/tighter than the R car as well. I would disagree with the author though, at that cost, its not "whats the point of the TTRS?" but "whats the point of the TTS?" The RS doesnt feel like a better VW, it feels like an alternative to Porsche.

Huey52

I would agree that the TTS is a nicer Golf R in a sports coupe package.

At the time of my procurement there was no MkIII TTRS and I got the TTS with plans to keep it bone stock and avoid tuning [ultimately had some negative prior experiences with same].
Southeast of Boston there're rarely any places I can responsibly use anywhere near its potential, so I can't imagine the TTRS, although the 5-cylinder soundtrack would be sublime by comparison at any speed (as would a boxer layout). So imho there's still a place for the TTS, even as I lust over the TTRS and Porsche.

shadeofnardogray

The 2.0 motor apparently takes to being chipped quite well, so if your car is off/coming off warranty, it might be well worth it to do something like an APR base tune for the pickup and drive-ability improvements. An intake and exhaust will go a long way there too, might not sound quite like the 5 (nothing really does), but should help her own voice to ring out while improving breathing.
Far as places... everything from 109 to 117 in the 95-27 box, and really even out to 495 is pretty decent complexity with too tight a structure in many places to commit severe faux pas in the eyes of the law. Not saying anyone should go WOT on their car through this stuff, but it provides a good deal of technical variety in terms of turn angle, incl/decl, and surface concerns to keep the driver occupied past 7/10ths, and even past 4/10ths one can already glean the weight transfer and grip semantics. Further south, actually not too many great spots off the main highways that i know of, but i've only lived on the south shore for 2y.

Vegas-roadster

Personally, I was very disappointed in the Mk 3 TTS performance. When the Mk 3 was announced in 2015, I was really looking forward to getting a Mk 3 TTS roadster as a substitute for the Mk 2 TTRS roadster they never sold in the US (nor the Mk 3 TTRS roadster). I was totally bummed when Audi USA decided not the sell the TTS roadster either although I understand their decision since the number of Mk 2 TTS roadsters sold did not pay for their US certification cost.
So now I'm looking to replace my Mk 2 roadster with a CPO Mk 3 roadster but then I noticed that I could get a TTS coupe for about the same price. I've driven the Mk 2 TTRS and it was a real thrill. In fact the TTRS is the only coupe I've ever seriously considered buying in the past 20 years. So I took a CPO TTS for an extended test drive. Unless I put the TTS into sport mode, the difference between my present Mk 2 and the Mk 3 TTS was not that significant to me driving around town and on freeways. Certainly not enough to give up my top-down pleasures.
Why? I'm not sure. Based on dyno tests I've seen by some tuners, Audi grossly underspecs the base TT engines and I believe they do this to help differentiate the TTS. Also, the Mk 2 TTRS was a stick with more HP and torque than the Mk 3 TTS. In any event the Mk 3 TTS did not come even close to the TTRS driving experience for me.

shadeofnardogray

The TTRS only really shares the body with the rest of the cars - driveline, suspension, and engine are night and day on the two cars. I'm not sure its really fair to compare them simply because they supposedly share a model line - its like comparing the VR4 to a 3000GT SL or a base model...
Agree that they undersell the 2.0 - been like that since it was a 1.8T actually.
The whole droptop thing never thrilled me outside of an elise, and even then i'll take an exige if i can get mitts on it. That said, it seems to be big for a lot of people, and the only explanation i have as to why it doesnt sell is that Audi marketing managed to let the TT get pigeonholed as a hairdresser's car by not cashing out the proper advertising dollars in hollywood (or just not swallowing GM seem to be able to do without limit in every matrix movie and blockbuster flop).
If they drop the TT, owners will have to choose from... oh, wait, nothing. There are no compact, AWD, turbo, luxury coupes below the 60K range.
So damnit people, go buy the thing, this years sales figures look like the range card of a blind unq.

95wildtt

Like your comparo here... I have a 95 TwinTurbo Stealth, FYI.

shadeofnardogray

Only things the Steath RT was missing compared to the VR4/GTO, IIRC, were the active aero and adaptive suspension. Car's a gem, thanks for keeping it alive.

For the younger readers in the crowd - these are variants of a car first sold in 1989 with climate control, active aero, active suspension, 4-wheel-steering, AWD, and a "300" hp twin turbo 3L V6 built out of wolverine's teeth (as proven by the aftermarket tuners). Feature list sound familiar to anyone? Also many of these were firsts for actual production cars, including, IIRC, the 17" standard alloy wheels.

Vegas-roadster

2018 CY US TT sales were the worst ever in a non-changeover year (2007 and 2015) with the average US dealer selling one new TT about every 2 months at 1289 cars total (and about half were the TTRS!). 2019 is far worse with only 332 TTs sold through April as compared to the dismal 534 sold through the same period in 2018. The 2019MY "refresh" put a long hold on orders in late 2018. Thing is, the refresh was a joke with minimal changes and no comparison the Mk 2 2011MY refresh that added a lot of goodies as standard equipment and a noticeable bump in the base TT HP and torque.
Pro reviews of the various Mk 3 TT models have been mixed with typical comments being "corners on rails but not engaging" whatever that means. Seems like unless you can get a car to slide through corners, it is not fun.
I find the 2 series BMWs to be a far better bang for the buck, new or used but they all look alike to me and the poor TT sales make for an exclusive ride that you rarely see, with folks always asking "What's that?"
I was interested in the 2019 anniversary edition until I found out you could only get the car in 2 shades of gray paint. Why not red and silver like the Mk 1 ALMS? When the TT was first sold here, about 75% of the cars were silver so how could you not have silver as one of the 20'th anniversary colors? This gets me back to one of the reasons the TT does not sell in the US which is Audi USA's incredibly limited paint and interior colors (as compared to the BMW 2 series or almost any other car sold in the US).
Finally, buying a new 2019 is just not cost effective when about the best deal you will get on a roadster is in the low $50s and I can get a 2016 CPO with under 15K miles for around $34k. I was a firm believer that Audi priced the TT out of its market but I see that the new BMW Z is in the same price range.