Audi TT vs Toyota 86

What's the difference?

Do you remember when you first saw an Audi TT? I can go first. It was 1998 and I’d been backpacking through Europe for months and had arrived in Paris just as all my money had run out.

Anyway, as I was beating myself up for spending way too much on a fridge magnet in a souvenir shop (it had a built-in thermometer) when one drove past me.

I saw the Audi badge but before I could work out what it was it turned the corner and was gone.

The mysterious Audi was silver and it looked like it was from the future, but actually it was the original TT, the first one, and being about October ‘98 it would have only just come out.

I would never have believed you if you’d told me at the time that 25 years later I’d be a motoring journalist and that I’d be reviewing the final Audi TT ever.

And here we are with the Audi TT Final Edition. That’s right, Audi has decided to discontinue this sports car after 25 years of production and it’s made this commemorative TT Final Edition that adds unique fettling and some nice features.

So, is the TT Final Edition worth buying? What’s so good about it? And how much more does it cost over a regular TT?

I found out after spending a weekend on some great roads to say goodbye to this icon. Oh, and I still have the fridge magnet.

Cast your mind back to 2012, Carly Rae Jepsen’s super-catchy Call Me Maybe single was at the top of the music charts, the first Avengers movie had just hit movie theatres and Toyota’s 86 sports car finally arrived in Australian showrooms after a lengthy teaser campaign.

Fast-forward eight years to 2020, and Carly Rae Jepsen is still releasing bangers, the Avengers have become the zeitgeist of 2010s popular culture and... the Toyota 86 is still available in local showrooms.

Sure, Toyota has tweaked, fiddled and updated the 86 a little since then, but the formula for an affordable, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe is still the same.

But the 86 now competes in a market that has moved ahead in leaps and bounds, and while direct competitors like the Mazda MX-5 are few and far between, it now has to fend off competition from some light-sized warm hatches.

Does the Toyota 86 manage to hold its own in 2020? Or is it better off relegated to the annals of history?