Junkyard Gem: 2001 Audi TT Quattro Roadster

For decades,

Audis

have been well-engineered and packed with cutting-edge technology… and that’s a problem for older Audis that don’t get the maintenance they need. Once an Audi reaches its third or fourth owner, expensive-to-fix problems can get ignored and the once-luxurious interior might start to fray around the edges. Depreciation accelerates, and then

this happens

: a car that was

worshiped by enthusiasts

a few years ago ends up parked among discarded

Kia Sephias

and

Toyota

Tercels at a Denver self-service wrecking yard.

This is the

TT

you wanted to have, 17 years ago, with 225 horsepower from its turbocharged 1.8-liter engine going to all four wheels.

There’s a six-speed manual as well. Junkyard shoppers bought the seats, but the remaining interior appears to have been not too trashed.

The presence of a space-saver spare tire on a junkyard car often indicates a final owner who

just didn’t care.

Maybe a blown head gasket, bad computer, or other costly and impossible-to-ignore problem reared its head, and that owner took 100 bucks from a wrecking yard to dispose of the TT.

Or perhaps the car just gathered up too many parking tickets, got impounded, and didn’t get picked up at

auction

because buyers get scared of non-perfect sporty German iron. This

happens all the time

. This process is a few years old

for the BMW Z3

, and now

the Porsche Boxster

and

Audi TT

have reached this point in their value arcs.

So if you ever wanted an Audi TT for cheap, keep an eye on your local impounded-cars and

insurance

auctions and you might find a TLC-needing example for a few hundred bucks.