If you know me, you know I have a soft spot for sporty 90s-2000’s cars. I’m always on the hunt for another project car to restore, especially one with lower miles and needing some TLC. It has been a while since I let of my last E46 project; since then I’ve moved and have been spending a significant amount of time renovating my garage. I’ve been getting the itch to work on another car, so I got pretty active in my search down in Southern California.
I ran across a Facebook Marketplace ad for a 2002 Audi TT that was initially advertised as the 220hp variant of the 1.8T. However, the seller made a mistake… turns out it was the 180hp variant with a 5-speed manual transmission. I went to check it out anyway because I have always been fond of these cool little cars.
The story behind the car was that it was mostly owned by the seller’s father for the life of the vehicle, but he moved out of the country and passed it on to his son. The son decided to sell the car, so from what I could tell the car was mostly a single owner, but kept for a short time with the son.
After inspecting the car, it seems cosmetically in good shape. My major concerns were with an active oil leak, and the fading of the clear coat and paint on the front and rear bumpers. There are also a ton of other little cosmetic issues like missing trim pieces and separating door panel upholstery.
The interior is a nice mix of black materials and aluminum trim. When you sit in the driver’s seat, the side bolsters hug the sides of your body. All of the buttons and controls are within arms-reach of the driver, feeling very driver-centric. In a refreshing comparison to all the new cars of today, the TT has lots of analog controls.
In contrast, the worst place to be in the TT is the rear seat, which is so small that only small children would be be able to fit (which makes no sense considering you’d need them in a car seat at that size anyway.) I remember stuffing myself into the backseat of my buddy’s TT before and it was just bearable for a very short drive.
This 2002 Audi TT comes with the 1.8T engine with 180hp and 173ft-lb of torque. It also has a 5-speed transmission and pseudo-AWD with Quattro. It’s not an incredibly fast car, but it’s a peppy little car. This is probably one of the smallest cars I’ve ever owned. I imagine when it comes time to detail the TT, it should be relatively easy and fairly quick to restore due to its size. Heck, I can even reach the roof without a step ladder!
I remember way back I was going to a city college at the time and this car was fairly new. One of my classmates was driving a new Mk1 TT. She gave me a ride after school one day and I remember thinking that it looked like a spaceship because of its unique design at the time. Since then, I’ve always thought of it as such a cool and unique car due to its outward design.
I thought I got a good deal as I was able to talk the seller down from their originally listed price, but after taking it home it just looks like just a ton of work for me to do. There’s a long road ahead for me on this one, but I’m going to really enjoy restoring this TT back to its former glory. Feel free to follow along on my project page for more updates on this project!
