Photo: Audi
You’ve been waiting forever to save enough money and buy the coolest hot hatch on the block. But unless you work in middle management, you probably can’t afford to finance a Audi or a Mercedes, right? So you’re just going to get the next best thing, a supermini hot hatch like a Ford Fiesta or a Clio RS. They’re all pretty fast, averaging about 6.9 seconds to the 100 km/h barrier.
And yet because Renault ditched the manual for a twin-clutch gearbox, its Clios are a little faster and easier to drive on an everyday basis. It sounds like a brilliant choice, but what can you get for the same money if you delve into the second hand market?
The outgoing Audi TTS is probably the least appreciated car built on the old PQ35 platform from Volkswagen, which also underpins the S3 hatch and the Golf 6 R. And yet it’s also the sleekest and the fastest. Thanks to a turbocharged 2.0 TFSI driving all four wheels, the TTS takes 5.2 seconds to reach 100 km/h and is electronically limited to the same 250 km/h as an M3 or C63 AMG. Up until recently, this was the fastest 2-liter tech Audi had to offer and it's not available at a huge discout.
Not only that, but it’s quite economical considering the outdated technology it uses and the all-wheel drive: 10.6 liters per 100 km in the city… if you’re really careful. The TTS is supposedly no as fun to drive as other Audi sportscars because it’s essentially a glorified FWD car. But isn’t that still better than a Clio RS?
Because the TTS hasn’t managed the same cult following as the Golf GTI, it’s cheap to buy. We found a whole bunch of them for sale on the usual online auction website, starting from around €19,000. Oh sure, they’ve got lots of kilometers/miles on the odometer, but that just shows you how usable these little coupes are. You very rarely see a Clio RS with over 100k that’s only 4 years old because people just can’t drive them on longer journeys.
You can even get a TTS Roadster for about €20-€24,000 if that’s what you need to convince the misses, but it’s not going to have a lot of luggage capacity. And best of all, most of the models we found are very well equipped with climatronic, leather and mostly S tronic automatic gearboxes. Remember, you're no buying a €40,000 at a 50% discout, you're buying a €40,000 that's been beaten down to half its value, but Audis can take a pounding. And yet whatever you do, don’t tune the engine if you expect it to last!
The outgoing Audi TTS is probably the least appreciated car built on the old PQ35 platform from Volkswagen, which also underpins the S3 hatch and the Golf 6 R. And yet it’s also the sleekest and the fastest. Thanks to a turbocharged 2.0 TFSI driving all four wheels, the TTS takes 5.2 seconds to reach 100 km/h and is electronically limited to the same 250 km/h as an M3 or C63 AMG. Up until recently, this was the fastest 2-liter tech Audi had to offer and it's not available at a huge discout.
Not only that, but it’s quite economical considering the outdated technology it uses and the all-wheel drive: 10.6 liters per 100 km in the city… if you’re really careful. The TTS is supposedly no as fun to drive as other Audi sportscars because it’s essentially a glorified FWD car. But isn’t that still better than a Clio RS?
Because the TTS hasn’t managed the same cult following as the Golf GTI, it’s cheap to buy. We found a whole bunch of them for sale on the usual online auction website, starting from around €19,000. Oh sure, they’ve got lots of kilometers/miles on the odometer, but that just shows you how usable these little coupes are. You very rarely see a Clio RS with over 100k that’s only 4 years old because people just can’t drive them on longer journeys.
You can even get a TTS Roadster for about €20-€24,000 if that’s what you need to convince the misses, but it’s not going to have a lot of luggage capacity. And best of all, most of the models we found are very well equipped with climatronic, leather and mostly S tronic automatic gearboxes. Remember, you're no buying a €40,000 at a 50% discout, you're buying a €40,000 that's been beaten down to half its value, but Audis can take a pounding. And yet whatever you do, don’t tune the engine if you expect it to last!
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