Audi TT: It's NOT a hairdresser-mobile, the dash is too flash

A dash of style

With all that stuff flowing through the instrument binnacle I’m not entirely convinced all drivers will be paying due care and attention to the road ahead. I think social media in a car is a fundamentally bad idea, but at least the driver will only be glancing down and not gazing for a prolonged time at a screen somewhere on the centre console.

Out on moors TT is a fine drivers car and there is a Quattro AWD option

Audi is keen to promote the inherent modularity of this system. There’s no reason that a year down the line the system couldn’t be replaced with something more powerful – Tegra 4, for example – and a whole new raft of functions could be added to the screen’s repertoire. No need to wait until the Mk. 3 TT’s mid-life facelift, or the Mk. 4 car.

This virtualization extends to the climate controls. The knobs on the dash feature circular LCD displays that show you what’s afoot as you turn or push them. Though more subtle, this part of the system is to my mind just as impressive as the instrument binnacle.

LCD climate controls are rather clever

The upside of all this virtualization is that the TT’s dash is a remarkably clean and minimalist affair. In fact, when you first sit in the thing, it’s hard not to wonder where the hell all the controls have gone and how you get the stereo or satnav to fire up.

My fear was that an LCD display would be hard to see in direct sunlight but that was a problem that simply didn’t manifest, even on the brightest of days. The system is also adept at matching the brightness of the display to the ambient lighting. At no point was it too bright or too dull, even when driving at night.

Not much centre console going on here...

To cap it all, my test car came with the optional 680W, twelve-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system, which wasn’t at all shabby. All this virtual jiggery-pokery and audio excellence would be of little consequence if the new TT was a mutt, but it’s definitely not.

Based on the same MQB (which stands for Modularer Querbaukasten, or “modular transverse” apparently) platform as the current Golf, Skoda Octavia, Seat Leon and half a dozen other models from the VW-Audi group, the third gen TT is more than just a Golf in a party frock.

230PS petrol engine is what you might describe as, rather good

There is certainly nothing wrong with the performance even from the 230PS 2.0L TFSi model I drove. Top speed is a limited 155mph and the dash to 62mph is dismissed in 6 seconds dead. Stir the rifle-bolt precise 6-speed manual box with some vigour and you’ll be heading down the road at a rate of knots.