jaws12audi

I picked up my 2018 TT RS (Nardo Gray Loaded minus Dynamic Plus) a little over a week ago and wanted to give an honest, no BS review of the car having driven about 500 miles in stop & go, highway, and backroad traffic.

I purchased the TT RS as my daily driver and I have loads of experience living with sports cars as daily drivers, most notably driving multiple 911s and Vettes in that manner.

I'm a big guy (6'3" 250 lbs) but my taste in cars always runs small. In the past, the Porsche 911 has always been the best of all worlds to me. Besides the otherworldly performance, the comfort and adaptability of the car always fit. I wanted to try something different.

1st the obvious, the TT RS is diminutive on the outside, smaller than I realized, which to me, is a big plus. I love the size of the exterior. The car is beautiful, a study in design, Nardo looks great, and I really think the car looks quite purposeful.

The interior has taken a bit of getting used to. From a comfort standpoint, the car can easily fit much bigger people than I comfortably. For 2 people, the car is cavernous inside, plenty of cargo space (with rear seats down) for anything other then the trips to Home Depot. Seats are very supportive, a bit snug, but long drive comfortable and beautifully stitched. The part that is hard to get used to is the simplicity of the layout and lack of controls. I love the virtual cockpit, the creative climate controls, and all of the materials used. The lack of an actual infotainment screen is strange, especially when you have a passenger in the car and they can't change a station because they can not see anything. Plus, while the design of the car is beautiful, they have created serious blind spots on both sides.

I have found this to be an extremely emotionally connected car. The 5 cylinder engine and exhaust note is intoxicating, especially above 3500 rpm. The transmission is amazing, the suspension, with magnetic damping is spot on. I have drive select set individually and it is perfect (engine-dynamic, exhaust- sport/dynamic, suspension-comfort, steering- auto, diff/quattro- dynamic) and it feels great. This car, when driven spiritedly, is a rocket ship. Seat of pants feel is more exciting than 911 C4S and the sound is more engaging than the new Porsche engines. Handling, at least on street driving, is goKart like, yet the dampers do smooth out the ride.

My only complaints are as follows:

• very thin paint
• need a better or more adjustable center armrest
• should have memory seats
• a slightly larger gas tank would be nice

I'm extremely happy with my choice so far.

Can_Quattro

Glad you are happy with it, these are great cars.

Cale262

I think I have (and many others) the same complaints. Your review in my mind is spot on and while I'm not a tall person, I do live in a wheelchair (Paraplegic T5 bust injury). I find the doors open wide enough to provide enough room to easily load and unload my chair which rides in the passenger seat when I'm alone (wheel in the back). When I have a passenger the chassis of my chair fits easily into the rear of the car and still provides enough room for a weekends worth of baggage. My biggest gripe is the memory seat issue which actually surprised me when if showed up, I just assumed (as did the salesperson) that memory seats would be a given. I have to move the seat all the way to the rear position and tilt the seat back in order to pass the chassis of my chair over myself and into the passenger seat, then I have to move the seat forward again and fidget around a little bit to find my optimal driving position, SMH.

jaws12audi

The lack of memory seats is really an oversight.

I mean, automakers are funny with their "performance" models.

Audi/AudiSport make some strange decisions.

The RS3, while a great little sedan, with a pretty standard build, is around $64k, yet it isn't possible to get power seats!!

Is it really for weight savings? It still has a/c, infotainment pop-up screen, etc...

The TT RS, while still a different animal then the RS3, would not be hurt by the extra few ounces a memory seating system would add to the weight of the car, considering most people would not by this $70k+ car and track it.

The paint is so thin, which is my other large complaint. My PPF install is this coming week and after 500 miles I already have a few chips in the hood. All cars experience this but I find Porsche, MB, and Jag have the best paint based upon my experience.

But, again, for between $70k-$75k you can't get a car with similar performance or sophistication.

Hats off to AudiSport for bringing this to the USA.

I hope they realize they are missing the boat by not bringing an RS4 and RS6 to the US.

Fun101

Great review! You nailed the complaint list. I'll add:
*Glass Windshield chips and cracks very easily.
*Need a proper hook to hang garments. Hangers barely fit in the hook and the clothes don't really fall freely (too short). Does anyone have any good DIY ideas for that?

(gas tank size doesn't really bother me...however I do wish the gauge was a bit brighter or larger)

Small points department...the plus list is much longer.

As for the passenger's ability to use the media, we just returned from a long road trip and as long as the screen was on full view then my husband could easily use the MMI dial to scroll through stations and songs and make his selections. Geez...he controls it in his car and now mine too!

Akenmaat

For me, a couple of other nitpicks are that mileage/trip mileage are only visible on the vehicle tab in large tach view. It would be nice if it was on all tabs(radio, nav, etc), since the space for it is still there.

And it would be nice, in general, if there was just a little more cross/tab information displayed. For instance, it would be nice to see artist/title info somewhere on the screen when in the nav or vehicle tabs. I don't really want to have to drive around in or switch to the radio tab to see what song is playing.

But yeah, amazing car. I just finished breaking mine in today and it is a blast.

Can_Quattro

Have you figured out that the Centre of the tach can be configured?
I set it to date currently but there are options.
From the vehicle settings screen, toggle right on the MMI controller.
Select Additional Display, and choose your option.

Akenmaat

Yeah, I stumbled across that by accident.

I'm really more talking about the mileage/trip mileage at the bottom of the tach. These only show up on the vehicle tab for me; they're missing in every other tab. I feel like that's a missed opportunity more than something I can't work around.

Audphile

Great review, Jaw's. I don't have much to add except that I have gotten use to having the oil level check available in the MMI in my other Audi's. It's a nit for sure.

Huey52

Same here. Although I never relied on it the omission was a surprise.

I find Audi's paint jobs to be superior to most. No paint can stand up to roadway rock chips, hence clear bra's, etc.