Most parents with two young boys would have been shopping for a spacious, practical SUV, or perhaps an even more practical minivan. Instead, my parents bought a 2002 Audi TT.
Blame my dad, who’d grown tired of driving a big Toyota Sequoia for years, and yearned for a sports car. Admittedly, the TT wasn’t at the top of his list when he started shopping.
The then-new Nissan 350Z was what he really wanted. But reality hit, and the two-seat Z gave way to a four-seat Audi TT coupe. You can’t say my dad didn’t sacrifice for his family.
Still, there was one concession my old man refused to make: getting anything less than the most powerful TT (at the time) available. This meant forgoing the entry-level front-drive model and its 180-hp turbocharged 1.8-liter four-cylinder for the more potent 225-hp iteration of the engine that was available only with all-wheel drive.
Despite its small size, the TT ably met the needs of our family. Even hockey season couldn’t keep the TT at rest, and with the left-rear seatback folded, there was enough room to fit all of our gear—including my dad’s hockey stick that nearly spanned the length of the TT’s cabin—and three people: my dad behind the wheel, my brother riding shotgun, and me stuffed into the cramped right-rear seat.
This was the usual seating arrangement no matter where we went. Every now and then, though, I got to sit in the front seat. Even as a kid who barely knew up from down, I knew the interior of the TT, particularly its art deco dashboard design, was special. On those rare occasions that the front seat’s thick bolsters hugged my lanky frame, I would pass the time appreciating the craftsmanship and quality of the circular air vents’ opening and closing mechanism and the flip-down metal radio cover and its embossed TT badge.
It went on like this for several years and hockey seasons, the three of us creating an abundance of fond—and occasionally not-so-fond—memories from within the TT’s tight quarters. Eventually, puberty hit, and my brother and I were no longer the pint-sized children we were when my dad first brought the TT home.
In 2012, my parents parted ways with the two-door Audi, trading it in for an Infiniti G25x sedan. In a way, leaving the TT behind at the dealer felt akin to abandoning a family member. For the last decade, the two-door Audi was such an omnipresent part of my life. And here we were thanklessly abandoning the two-door Audi after approximately 120,000 miles of dutiful service.
I was too young to drive the TT in the decade my family owned it. Nor had I driven—or even been in—the two generations of TT that followed the original. All that changed, though, when Audi invited me to a special 25-year anniversary celebration of the model at its U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, kicking things off with an early morning car show honoring the TT.
The day culminated with a scenic drive through the Commonwealth behind the wheel of a gray 2023 Audi TT convertible. Though not the 2002 TT coupe I grew up with, the latest TT retains the key traits of the original: it still rides on a Volkswagen Golf–derived chassis, relies on a powerful turbocharged four-cylinder engine for motivation, and retains a striking Bauhaus design.
Our 2002 TT always struck me as a bona fide sports car, and realizing this fundamentally similar 2023 model lacked the verve of more focused competitors such as the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman and even the BMW Z4, was a tough pill for the kid in me to swallow. A part of me knew this was the case, but the other part of me had to accept the TT was not the spirited machine I’d built it up to be after all those years spent buckled into its rear seat.
After coming to terms with this truth, I let go of my preconceived notions of the car and simply enjoyed it for the comfortable sporting machine it is. The TT may not be the most dynamically capable vehicle in its segment, but its high-end interior finishes, handsome design, and comfortable ride quality are appealing qualities.
It’ll hold its own when push comes to shove, too. As I worked its three-spoke steering wheel driving through the Shenandoah Valley’s back roads, I came to appreciate the TT’s surprisingly neutral lateral dynamics and torque-rich 228-hp turbocharged engine. I understood the appeal of the TT, even if it didn’t directly appeal to me.
Despite its falling short of my expectations, I’ll always remain fond of the TT. Credit all those years I spent practically growing up in one. Much like my brother and I outgrew the back seat of our family’s TT, Audi believes it has outgrown the entry-level sports car and is pulling the cord on the model after 2023. Driving the TT simply wasn’t as exciting as growing up in one, but I’m still sad to see it go.
Associate News Editor
Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.
