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A co-worker is looking for a new car. We stopped by the Audi dealer at lunch and he drove a TTS and I rode along.

Great car, here are my thoughts:
The back seat is a joke. I wouldn't put an enemy back there. Ever. This is a 2 seat car.
Interior is really nice, if not quite as nice as the first generation cars.
No spare tire?!? I've learned my lesson about that... At least they include an air compressor and fix-a-flat.
The sight lines are much better than I expected.
Lots of head room, even if you were at a track day and had to wear a helmet.
The ride quality was very good considering it's a small, short wheel base sports car.
Seats had quite a bit of adjustment.
This car needs a manual transmission, even in sport mode the slow uptake of the trasmission did the small turbo engine no favors.

This last point is a bit of a sticking point. You see, the TTS is ONLY AVAILABLE WITH AN AUTOMATIC!

As a car fanatic this upsets me greatly.

Lack of manual is a deal breaker, regardless of car.

I'm not ready to step into the 21st century fully.

I love the DCT when I'm at the 'Ring or during the Stelvio Pass run and I'm glad I got one for $450, but day to day I'd rather have a manual.

Did it have the dual clutch tranny that is available here? I know the TTRS has a manual option, but that might be too much $$$

Sabre wrote:Did it have the dual clutch tranny that is available here? I know the TTRS has a manual option, but that might be too much $$$

The only transmission available on the 2013 TTS is their dual clutch box, but the way it behaved I thought it was a regular "torque converter" automatic.

The step up to the TTRS is more than my buddy is willing to make and he won't consider a DCT or automatic. As I doubt he will ever do more track time than possibly 1 lap at the 'Ring (just to say he did) I don't blame him. I like my DCT but my next car with be a manual.

I had exactly the same experience when I test drove a Jetta GLI. I'm sure that it technically changes gear very fast, but I felt it was a bit slower to respond to the paddles than it should have been. And if left to it's own devices it was down right stupid in any situation other than a drag race. My friend has a fiesta with a dual clutch transmission and it feels just as dimwitted. Bottom line is transmission engineers still haven't figured out how to read our minds. Clutches operated by pedals and gears changed with sticks just feel nicer to drive cause they do what we want when we want it.

it would appear i'm in the minority here... i'd love to have a dct.

I'm up in the air about it still. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE DCT's, but I really do think that I would miss my manual after awhile. This is going to sound completely opposite of what people usually think, but I would like to keep my manual for daily driving, and a DCT for track days. I like that I don't have to take my hand off the wheel to change gears, and it is much faster than I am at the track. For every day situations though, I love manuals. lol, as I said, I'm weird. Most people hate manuals for every day driving.

I talked to Dave today about the test drive. I admitted that I didn't realize it was a DCT and wondered if Sport mode would improve it's responses. He said "it was in sport mode the entire time, I saw the button and pushed it before pulling out of the parking lot." Yikes.
Sport mode on the 135 makes a HUGE difference.

C & J, I know where you can test drive a DCT 135i...

complacent wrote:it would appear i'm in the minority here... i'd love to have a dct.

nope, you're not alone. thing is though....a good DCT is a wonderful thing. An average one is setting fire to your cash money.

I'll try to test drive one and report back a comparison between the Audi and BMW DCT.

Mr Kleen wrote:I'll try to test drive one and report back a comparison between the Audi and BMW DCT.

I would LOVE that

Looks like he's going to get the TTS. He test drove a Z4 but really didn't fit in the car and it's kind of a pain to get out of.