► Month five living with the svelte Audi TTS
► Audi moves the interior game on…
► … but that sizzling cabin ain’t quite perfect
Is there a finer cabin on sale today? Especially for a car costing from £27k in lowlier 1.8-litre TFSI spec? Granted, our range-topping TTS is generously specced to 20 big ones more than that, but still… This. Is. An. Amazing. Cockpit. There, I’ve said it.
Audi has been garnering plaudits for its sumptuously built interiors for well over a decade now and that’s what impresses me most. It hasn’t rested on its laurels and waited for the competition to catch up – it’s been pushing the boundaries.
Not that the TT’s cabin is that radical. It’s still got a steering wheel and pedals, buttons and knobs and that. But it does seem to tap into the minimalist, modernist vibe that BMW has mined so successfully in the new i3 and i8 electric twins. The TT has always had an edgy, progressive streak so it’s appropriate that the coupe penned this next chapter of Ingolstadt’s design handbook.
Take the centre console. There are remarkably few conventional buttons on there, as most functions are absorbed into the steering wheel controls and – the best bit – the heating and ventilation switchgear is built into the air vents themselves with tiny digital read-outs, leaving a delightfully uncluttered dashboard.
It’s so simple and logical, like all the best ideas. You want to turn up the temperature? Just swivel the metallic-effect wheel on the vent itself. The eight keys ahead of the gearlever lift the pop-up spoiler, disable the stop/start and hazard lights.
The ace up the TT’s sleeve remains the 12-inch digital read-out where the dials should be – the only screen in the whole cabin. That’s a bit selfish, but this is a sports car and my kids simply peer across to ogle the full-width sat-nav mapping and the clever-clogs reconfigurable dials shrinking and expanding at my beck and call.
It’s modern, it’s clever, it leaves most of the dashboard clear for cool Germanic industrial chic, with lashings of scarlet leather, soft-squidge plastic and cool aluminium-effect plastic. Perfect? Not quite. Try resetting the odo reading without any good old-fashioned physical buttons to prod. That’s the tension between the physical world and the virtual, right there.
Headlining
Ambience lifted by cool charcoal grey headlining and the £100 extended leather kit adorning the door cards
Left speaker
Bang & Olufsen stereo sounds fab, illuminates at night: makes even compressed iPhone tunes sound crisp to my layman ears
Red seats
Yes, yes. We somehow ordered bright red, quilted, electric sports seats for £995 on our TTS. Comfy and snazzy-looking, if gauche
Middle air vents
Stunning industrial architecture. Riffing on the Mk1 TT’s metallic air vents, the Mk3’s look like turbines, and now include the heating controls
MMI rotrary controller
Audi’s latest MMI controller operates the digital instrument screen – plus you can draw (messy) sat-nav instructions with your (left) finger
Digital display
The TT’s crowning glory: the fabulous 12.3in LCD screen, with pin-sharp graphics, changeable dials and widescreen sat-nav
Auto gearlever
Chunky S-tronic gearlever easy to use – or slot into Manual and use the (flimsy and disappointingly plastic) steering wheel paddles
Base of steering wheel
Wheel a good shape, chunky to hold. Buttons easy to use, but TTS badge feels loose – just like on our Octavia vRS’s rim…
Blindspot mirros
That black tab on the door mirrors is the blindspot monitor: flashes when cars lurk in that invisible zone over your shoulder
From the driving seat
+ Quattro traction great for winter slime
+ Engine fully loosened up now
– Ride far too jiggly, even in Comfort mode
+ Turbo pace thrills
+ Full-bore upshift crackle ’n’ pop
Logbook: Audi TTS Coupe
Engine: 1984cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 306bhp @ 5800rpm, 280lb ft @ 1800-5700rpm
Gearbox: 6-spd dual-clutch auto, awd
Stats: 4.6sec 0-62mph, 155mph, 159g/km CO2
Price: £40,270
As tested: £46,565
Miles this month: 1547
Total: 6161
Our mpg: 27.6
Official mpg: 40.9
Fuel this month: £300.36
Extra costs: £3.99 (screenwash)