2002 Audi TT Roadster

Remember when you were a kid and you'd finally saved enough money to go downtown to the sporting goods store and buy that new baseball glove? Remember the way it felt as you slipped it over your hand? Remember the way it smelled? Remember how it transformed you into the Brooks Robinson of your local sandlot?

The TT's profile remains distinctively stunning. Moro Blue and Brilliant White are the new colors, and a blue ragtop is now available.

The Audi TT Roadster is the automotive equivalent of that brand-new baseball glove, especially when it comes equipped (as did our test vehicle) with a 225-horsepower engine and the optional Baseball Optic leather interior. Just like that new ball glove, this is an option that's worth saving for, and it adds only $1,000 to the Roadster's price, which is now $39,900 if you want the turbocharged, Quattro-equipped version like our test vehicle. The 180-horsepower (lower-pressure turbo), front-wheel-drive version's MSRP is $33,200.


The TT Coupe starts at $31,200. While this car has a back seat, the baseball leather package with its big, thick stitches at the edge of the seat and back bolsters isn't available for it. Instead, Audi offers Fine Nappa leather seating or cloth with Pearl Nappa leather surfaces as a no-cost option.


We have to admit that the first time we climbed behind the wheel of a TT, we just sat there for the longest time—looking, touching, smiling like a teenager who'd finally graduated from his baseball glove to his first girlfriend. Like your first sweetheart, the TT is a beauty to behold, so well designed that you have to remind yourself to turn the key and actually take the car for a drive.

Baseball Optic leather interior is one of the most innovative and aesthetically pleasing treatments in any vehicle. An eight-dimple theme appears throughout the trim pieces and accessories.

In an automotive world of parts-bin interior design, the TT's passenger compartment is a marvelous place. Notice that the aluminum ring that secures the concentric shifter boot is held in place by eight screws around its perimeter and that this same eight-dimple design is carried throughout the interior, from the round vent controls to the pivots for the needles in the car's various gauges. There's also a consistency to the aluminum trim pieces, from the aluminum clutch, brake and gas pedals to the aluminum plate that covers the radio's face.