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End of an era as Audi closes TT chapter after 25 years
A comparative replacement is unlikely to happen in lieu of the shrinking demand for sports cars.
Introduction of the depicted UK-market only Final Edition earlier this year, effectively sealed the TT’s fate. Image: Audi
UPDATED: Audi South Africa has confirmed to The Citizen it still has stock left at select dealers, which it expects to sell out early next year. It also indicated that unlike the UK, United States and Europe, no farewell special edition will be produced for the local market.
After the debut of a series of bespoke market depended models, the most recent being the simply titled Special Edition bound for the United States in batches of 50 units, Audi has confirmed that production of the TT officially concluded earlier this month after 25 years and three generations.
No replacement expected
In an entry on its Instagram page, the Four Rings announced that the Győr plant in Hungary produced the final TT, seemingly a TT S Coupe based on the provided image, on the 10th of this month for a total of 662 762 units since the original Mk IV Golf-based original’s unveiling.
ALSO READ: Audi says goodbye to TT with farewell Final Edition
Produced solely at Győr, the TT’s future has long been in doubt ever since Ingolstadt’s confirmation of it becoming a wholly electric vehicle brand before 2030.
Goodbye to an icon
In addition to sliding sports cars, demand for SUVs, as well as cost cutting measures, the debut of the farewell Final Edition in the United Kingdom in February this year all but sealed the TT’s future as before then, no other special variant had been introduced with a denominator of the same definition attached.
“The segment is shrinking and is under a lot of pressure. So of course we have to think about how long we want to offer something there – and whether we don’t have cooler ideas for other segments. I would say that it is not likely that the TT will get a direct successor,” former Audi boss, Markus Duesmann, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport in 2020 when asked about the TT’s future.
Rumours that never happened
Then newly appointed, Duesmann also brushed aside rumours of the TT morphing into an SUV, saying, “this is a rumour I’ve never heard of. And I think that wouldn’t suit the car either”.
Two years prior, it was alleged that the TT could transition into a four-door sedan with a lowered coupe-like roofline similar to the A5 and A7, but targeted at the Mercedes-Benz CLA.
Brushing the claims by Auto Express aside, then Audi Head of Product Communication, Peter Oberndorfer, admitted plans had on the table for a range of TT models, before remarking, “not so much anymore”.
Denouncing the four-door TT concept, the former DTM driver told now defunct Australian online publication, caradvice.com.au, “where the recent stories came from, I don’t know. I don’t know about a four-door TT”.
Last updated in 2019, five years after its world debut, the current TT became one of the first Volkswagen Group models to make use of the MQB platform, which has subsequently evolved into the MQB Evo unveiled with the eighth generation Golf in 2019.
On run-out
While listed by South Africa priced from R912 000 for the coupe only TT S to R1 317 800 for the TT RS Roadster with the hard-top variant of the latter priced in the middle at R1 259 700, expectations are that sales will soon cease based on production being over.
Additional information from drive.com.au.
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