2009 Audi TTS

Audi enthusiasts know that "S" is a powerful letter in the automaker's lineup, and it's just as significant in the new TTS. An offshoot of the TT coupe and roadster, the TTS has a host of performance enhancements, like a great turbocharged engine and a special suspension setup, but U.S.-bound versions are missing the one feature they need most: a true manual transmission.
Efficient, Strong Turbo Four-Cylinder
Audi's turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that's found in the TT is one of my favorite engines because it offers a lot of power in a small package. It's also incredibly smooth-revving, encouraging you to run it all the way up to its redline. The TTS' turbo four-cylinder has the same displacement, but it features numerous changes that affect the engine block, cylinder head, pistons and turbocharger, among other components.

The result is stronger output — 265 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 258 pounds-feet of torque at 2,500 rpm — without any loss of the smoothness that makes the TT's base turbo engine so appealing. The TTS' engine still feels strong at highway speeds, where it's able to propel the coupe forward with a degree of assertiveness that you might not expect from a four-cylinder, even a turbocharged one (Audi cites a zero-to-60-mph acceleration time of 4.9 seconds for the coupe). Despite its quickness and power, the TTS achieves impressive gas mileage for a sports car, with an EPA-estimated 21/29 mpg city/highway.

The TTS is offered only with Audi's S tronic six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission in the U.S. (a six-speed manual is available in other markets). There's no question it's a technically advanced transmission, and it does have some appealing qualities, but there are times when you want the simplicity of a plain-old manual gearbox, and this is one of them.

First, let's hit what's good about the dual-clutch automatic. Put it in Drive and it'll knock off quick upshifts on hard acceleration, and it also makes quick downshifts when you use the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel, or the console gear selector's manual mode. Oddly, driver-initiated upshifts feel much slower than when the car makes them for you.

If your daily drive involves a lot of stop-and-go tedium, I could see this transmission being preferable to a stick. Audi, however, makes the choice for you by not offering a manual in the States, which is something some enthusiasts won't accept. You're left to dream about what might have been.

Now for the automatic's low points: The first one is that when it's left in Drive the transmission tends to rob the engine of power by upshifting through the gears to keep the four-cylinder's rpm as low as possible. The transmission's Sport mode does a better job of keeping the engine in its power band by letting it rev, but this setting includes an aggressive downshifting program when slowing that keeps engine rpm high. That might get old in everyday driving.