Ever since 1999, the Audi TT had me mesmerized by its beauty and sleekness. Freeman Thomas was the guy that blessed us with an iconic design. We had designers buzzing around the office where I worked and I’m sure in other places.
What do you think of the 2008 Audi TT?
What are you likes and dislikes?
How would you change it, or do you like it the way it is?
I saw one in a parking lot a couple weeks back and I was completely and utterly awed by it. The design refinement and more aggressive language it carries with it is phenomenal. The migration away from the geo-soft design language is far more appealing to my taste.
Great looking car. How would I change it? I’d make it look more like the R8. 
Oh yeah - and that mini site has pretty mediocre CGI renderings of the cars. Step up your game Audi.
Interior: I miss the rich details and simpler forms of the old one.
Exterior: I’m mixed on, the sculpting is very well done, the proportions are awesome, the down road graphic is much meaner, but it doesn’t seem to be as iconic as the original TT.
The Avus had a direct aesthetic relationship to the TT, it looked like they were milled from the same block of metal. Maybe the R8 and the current TT should have had more of that relationship.
A friend of mine parked his 2002 TT a few weeks a go and a kid said “look Mommy, a space ship”… I still get people asking me about my '01 with the baseball glove seats when I park it. My neighbor has a standing offer to buy it when I want to get rid of it (never)… will the new one have that? Can a sequel ever have an impact as the first movie (Empire Strikes Back not included)?
side, 3/4 rear, rear all supper…front end its buckky the toothy pissed off rabit…uggg
a) This loses the iconic design of the original, plain and simple. There’s no way they’ll top the original, so I think they should be more careful about tweaking it. Apparently they were, because I remember the flamewar here on Core (back in 2000?) when some wilder concepts for the TT were proposed.
b) I’m worried that they’re going down the same path Chrysler did with the original Neon.
c) It looks good
d) It reminds me of the Mitsubishi Eclipse.
e) Its less differentiated from the A4
f) if I want swoopy door details, I’ll buy the BMW Z4.
Audi A4:
2008 TT:
Mitsubishi Eclipse rear end:
Excellent pairing CG.
The fact that it so closely resembles the eclipse makes me hate it.
I agree with cyberdemon in that it should more closely resemble the R8. I saw an R8 the other day (at least I think it was one, but I also saw the auto show version) and that is a beautiful car.
YO I’m jealous of your baseball glove seats. That was my absolute favorite detail from the TT that year.
I couldn’t agree more, well dissected. I said the same thing about the z4 side slash when a friend asked me if I would get the new TT.
@ NURB, I always liked the coupe better, but when I found a baseball glove one up for sale a few years back, I couldn’t pass it up. I love 'em!
agreed the original is more original (if that makes sense). more different than others of the same era and more of a one off classic that does pick up cues of the heritage.
the new one is nice in its agsresive look, but likewise is too similar in my taste to a lot of other euro and japanese coupes.
i also saw a R8 the other day, and immediately had a WTF reaction! just the led headlights alone made it look like something from the future.
would be interesting to see how the TT progresses over time, and if it does lose some aspect of uniqueness. only thing i can compare it to is the 70’s-80’s mercedes 350/450SLs that still look classic while the late 80’s to 80;s 500SL look from their era and lack some sort of classic appear.
that all beign said, i do find it a shame that for the most part, the original TT has lost some appeal in my book, as its all too often drivien by “hairdressers and posers” to quote Jeremy Clarkson. No offence Michael, my dad drives one too, and is in neither of those categories.
still, the original is a great value used, and i’ve seen you can pick one up for about $16-20K for an '01 in good condition (CDN, but now im sure pretty similar in USD). beats a new honda civic or VW for the same $ any day in every way!
R
i can express in words of more than 4 letter how much I dislike the front of the new tt, and many others of the “pissed off buck toothed rabit” style…
OMG
Did I just miss the train to mainstream central.
When did the TT go from excellent to average.
Honestly the design is clean but it has lost its characteristics.
Now it looks more like the car my 50 year old ladyneighbour
go to the supermarket in.
Im probably gonna be flamed for this post but each have
their own opinion.
Car design is something that no one will ever agree on. It’s almost as controversial as religion…minus the holy wars.
I think the real problem we have with the new TT is the old TT. It’s always hard to follow up a classic. I remember when the New Beetle came out. I admit that it is a design classic too, but since I grew up around vintage VWs, the New Beetle seemed to be a fake. A poor reproduction of the original. A lot of people didn’t feel that way of course, because that original experience was a generation removed from them. If 20 years had passed with no TT, I think we would hail this new one as a grand success for capturing so much of the spirit of the original, while giving us all of the things we expect to have in a contemporary sports car (more power, more aggressive, more space, aerodynamically stable, more refined).
I agree from a purely styling POV, I would take the original. However, if I had to buy one today, I would put my money on the new one. It’s just so much better as a complete package.
Lastly, why isn’t this in the transportation design forum? /me throws a heavy thermostat at yayoalldayo
I couldn’t agree with you more.
All Audi’s cars has that buck-toothed/sabor tooth tiger style.
The back of the 2008 Audi TT looks good but the front is eehhh!!!
I have been watching Audi play with the TT at the Javitz car show every year and I don’t think they can top the original.
It may take several years in order to do that but the 98-99 version will always remain a classic.
That R8 though is fiyah! /How much is it?
I see that car from the front and hear in my head two things “ehhhh watz up doc?” and “eat steel polseen boy”…
The new Jetta is like that too; big time!
Ya’ll are a buncha buzzkills. Getting all sappy and nostalgic over a blobby little roadster (granted…baseball glove seats are cool).
I was all happy drooling over the '08 TT roadster and then you had to go and start comparing it to the Eclipse, whining about losing charm…blah blah blah.
The new TT has attitude now. Far more appealing to those of us nearing our mid-life crisis.
Here’s a GREAT article on the rise and fall of the once iconic Neon:
“Back in high school there was a kid that entered the building on the first day of Freshman year as a likeable guy with a promising future. Over the course of four years this kid changed into a punk with an aversion to authority, the latter of which led to his expulsion a month short of graduation.”
There’s a lesson in here for Audi.
thank you!
im glad i’m not the only one that thought the original was too doughy…
don’t get me wrong i thought it was cool, but like all of the blobjecty stuff comeng out then i just dont like it as mch as i like the current surfaces. concave surfaces are cool, man… and so are buck-toothed angry rabbits