… so eBayed it (sold in 12minutes!) and I now own a 52-plate 1.8 in bright red - I am about to retire so bought the TT as a plaything, but the MX5 is far far better suited to my requirements!!
Pete
Can you give us a short story about this.
I hand thought about a drop top 4 wheel drive one but had heard lots of tails about numbers of faults that always cost say £500 to fix.
greetings pete, so glad you converted to a 5. you will certainly find it cheaper to maintain.
have fun & dont forget to wave
I have a friend who owns an A4 and the list of problems he’s had with it and the standard of work by their technicians, not to mention the obscene costs charged by Audi to fix them just puts me off ever buying an Audi.
Hello and welcome You will have lots of fun in your 5, get out and about with your local area.
Yes my friend at work now got rid of his audi tt he told me it cost to much to run and maintain, I tried to convert him to a mx5 but he bought a mr2 instead.
Hi Drumtochty - a brief but sad tale I’m afraid !
Following a stroke in late 2012, and as a reward for therefore stopping smoking after 45 years I spent £2800 on a Y-reg TT 225bhp Quattro, excellent body but after a short honeymoon period a number of faults appeared, all of them listed as ‘usual’ on the TT forums!
An existing one when I bought it was the pixelated dash display (making the computer section unreadable) - this was apparently subject to a recall some years ago but Audi kept it a bit of a secret (allegedly!!) so many missed out and it is now a £1000 dealer replacement!
The front antiroll bar also becomes loose on its mountings, so I had to replace this.
Then the antiskid warning light started coming on - the first time I was doing approximately 20mph on a straight country road, I just touched the brake and there was a ‘sudden graunchy feel’ through the brake pedal from the rear end (if I had to guess it would be off-side, but of course these things travel around!). The nearest I can describe it is that it was as if the brake linings had suddenly hit the metal!
I bought a cheapo digital scanner - I realise this a bit like buying your own Blood Pressure kit, but at £8:99 I thought I'd give it a go!
It showed the following :-
16502 P0118 Engine Coolant Temp.Circ High Input - Temp Low.
17695 P1287 Turbocharger bypass valve open (and "turbocharger boost limit exceeded")
17956 P1548 Boost Pressure Contr.Valve Open (and 17956 - Boost Pressure Regulation Valve (N75): Open Circuit)
(Various) "ABS faults logged for G251 Longitudinal Sensor and G202 Yaw Rate Sensor " - looking these codes up I came across quite a lot of stuff on the 2 sensors (G202 and G251) - but I stopped reading quite quickly, sensing that I really don't want to become an expert on any of this!
And then it started trying to kill me!
I was in the fast lane on the m40, doing 80ish on a slow left-hand curve when the ABS decided to apply braking to first the offside rear then immediately to the nearside rear - which set up a moment or two of interesting steering correction!
A few minutes later there was a minor traffic jam and when I pressed the brake pedal lightly the ABS went into full stop/start mode but completely out of synch, so there was a lot of noise and juddering but very little braking effect!
That was the end of the affair! I put a very honest advert on eBay, being very clear on the faults and the dangers, but it still sold for the Buy it Now price of £1850 after just 12 minutes!
But the overall ‘fun’ issue with the Audi TT was that I was clearly paying for technology and complexity that I really didn’t need - I had to give it an awful lot of welly before I felt any excitement - it was simply to smooth and refined because of all the gizmos - the MX5 allows me to blast safely down the country roads and get a a thrill from driving at 50 to 60 mph rather than 90!!
Here’s to more of the same!
Welcome to the forum Pete, and thanks for the Audi horror story. I rather fancy a Porsche Cayman but terrified of the expensive engine faults they appear prone to.
I don’t have a lot of spare cash… my kids see to that! So choice to have Mk1 MX was “no choice”, but…
I’m sure TT/Cayman/Ferrari etc would be just EXCELLENT cars, but probably no where near as good as MX (all marks) for all types of driving conditions and styles. MX is great at low speed and once you begin to push a little bit, it’s even more fun, and all at modest speeds. I imagine pricier cars need to be a little too closer to the red-line to get to the fun-line…
My wife and I love our Mk1… brill fun at modest speeds in all conditions… and all for a Grand… and when (IF) we get bored, we probably could get our Grand back!
Is there a better car-deal anywhere else???
big smiles.
Yep - I went through the same/usual decision process - as an ex-alfa man (166 and 159) I’m used to horror warnings, but they did scare me off of the SLK, Boxter, and Crossfire. I thought the Audi would be safe but have to say that the problems I had seem acceptable for an Audi but would sound the death knell for a Leyland car!! I then considered the MG (odd seating angles and rattly), then the MR2 which is attractive in so many ways, but simply nowhere to pack your cheese sandwiches - so to the MX5, which I love!!
Welcome Pete I too recently sold my TT for a '5. The TT was my first ‘quality’ car and was a nice place to be and I spent a lot of money trying to make it handle, but it was just too boring and just lacked excitement. So it had to go.
'5 is just more alive
Interesting story thanks and welcome to the club. Pound for pound the best 2 seater sports car …
Welcome to the club. You sound to have had a horrific time in the TT! I’ve also come to the mx5 after an incredibly unreliable Audi, albeit mine was a A3 TDI 170 S-Line.
The Audi was my first “premium” car, the biggest disappointment I’d ever bought. 5 years old and the repair bill seemed endless and NOTHING is a cheap fix on them.
Still moved on to much better things 
In fairness to VAG I’ve just handed back my final company car - a VW Passat CC - and it was the best 4 seater car I’ve owned, though more of a sofa than a driving pleasure!
My one problem with the MX5 is trying to emulate that chap in the You Tube video racing his manual soft top against the electric roof version - how on earth do I pull the roof up over my head whilst remaining in the car ??!!
Any suggestions - apart from Steroids - very welcome!
A fabric dog lead as the are wide but thin.
Unscrew the the “bit” at the front middle of the roof. Put in one end of the the dog lead and screw the “bit” back.
I will have a look tonight to explain what the “bit” on the hood is.
Otherwise I got a bad twist in my back from lifting the hood from a seated position.
Ha Ha - not just me then! Many thanks.
Found it here :-
http://www.planetmx5.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6007
(Together with some silly comments about ‘grow some muscles’ - yeah sure, you’ll be 65 years old one day )
One of the benefits of being 6’5" I could just flick it up with one arm whilst sat in the driving seats (downside, your thighs polish the steering wheel!). My Dad now has my old mk2.5, he’s 6’2" and can’t manage to do it. He’s now put the dog lead (fabric belt actually) that drum touchy described in
Hello and welcome. Had my 5 for a little over two years now and still love it. Sorry to hear the Audi horror story but I guess the silver lining is that it brought you here.
On a similar note my mate, an MX5 owner, hankered after owning a Porsche, so having an itch he had to scratch went out and paid 10K for a Boxter. He then proceeded to pay a further 10K over the next two years keeping it on the road… He’s now once more an MX5 owner.
Enjoy your car.
Jeff.