Audi TT review - Reliability and Safety

Audi placed 16th (out of 30 car makers) in the manufacturer rankings for the 2019 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, ahead of BMW in 25th and Mercedes 26th. 21% of Audi owners told us they’d experienced at least one fault within the first year, and while recognising engine ability across the range, servicing costs are felt to be too expensive. Audi doesn’t rate well for dealer service, either, which is not quite what you’d expect from such a premium brand.

It has to be said that the first TT Mk3 we ran on our fleet suffered from a few electrical niggles, although the build quality and finish inside were impressive. The mechanical elements should be pretty resilient, too, particularly as so much of the car’s engineering under the skin is shared across the VW Group.

Euro NCAP awarded the TT a four-star crash test rating; it missed out on the maximum score as Audi doesn’t offer city braking technology. The independent testing body now requires this to be fitted to award a five-star rating as part of its more rigorous assessments, introduced in 2015. And until the TT’s direct rivals have faced the tougher Euro NCAP test regime, it’s important to compare the small print, and not the headline star ratings.

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Nevertheless, you should be able to assume Audi’s small coupe is safe in all the most fundamental areas, and there are lots of protective electronic systems available to uprate the safety envelope.

The only trouble is, if you want these clever safety aids, you’ll have to pay for many of them as extras. Six airbags and a tyre pressure monitor come as standard, but blind spot monitoring and lane keep assist, for example, are options priced around £600 each.

Warranty

The Audi TT comes with a run-of-the-mill three-year warranty capped at 60,000 miles, which certainly inspires less confidence than the unlimited mileage cover provided over the same time period on the Porsche Cayman and BMW 2 Series.

Servicing

Three years of servicing a mid-spec Audi TT should cost around £900, but Audi does provide fixed-rate service plans that help owners spread the cost.