Update: went to see the blue eBay one yesterday as the seller had come back with a revised deal. Before the resident Covid Police coming knocking: I'm in the trade so can travel for cars perfectly legally plus I took new mask, gloves and hand sanitiser. I had no contact with an actual human from leaving my place to arriving home again. Frankly it was lovely to go for a drive: I live and work on my own and my only other reason to be out and about is doing shopping for me and five other people (parents, unit-neighbour and unit landlord and his other half). Had a brilliant drive in the evening sun with the old 4x4 and trailer: it's a route that's pretty tight and winding and usually you're battling with all sorts coming the other way.
Anyway ... (!). The TT. Honestly, my first thought as I drew up was it looked fat. In photos they look pretty lean but the reality for me was it just looked rather flabby. Too rounded? Funny thing is I must have seen thousands over the years. Of course I'm looking at it after having the Roadster (and driving a smart 4/2), so I guess most things will look big. I can really see why the MK2 was sharpened right up to a leaner, meaner look, albeit in a larger package.
Lovely inside, both in design and as an example. Really liked that, but no 'down the bonnet' view at all, nothing to suggest 'this is going to be a bit special'. My 911's, 996 and Roadster all had / have a view of some sort. Frankly I just thought 'nope' at that point. This was very much helped by the fact the underside of this particular one was very corroded and caked in old mud. Had a lot of chips, dinks and scrapes which the dark blue highlighted. It had been carelessly jacked, missing undertray, oily engine, grubby inside oil cap etc. Engine sounded very healthy to be fair, clutch smooth and light, gears selected nicely. Shame as the colour was fab and I really liked the half-leather.
Bottom line was I just couldn't see it on my drive. It didn't make me smile when I saw it. In fact it was just a rather tired old car. Having one rather unwise Audi mini-resto underway is enough for now I think. Therefore I didn't drive it: I already knew this wasn't going to work this time so no point putting the seller in the position of having to let me drive it alone (no other option at the moment of course).
Now, I can see as a rather pretty daily it would be a nice thing if in the right condition, but for me, at this time? No, I'll stick with the Smart for now I think. That really did make me smile when I saw it: didn't even drive it, I thought 'I don't care, I'm having it.'
BTW, just did a 'How Many Left' on Smart Roadster Coupe 80bhp: about 850. I was surprised it's that high tbh as they didn't do nearly as many Coupe's as the cheaper notch-back, about 1/4 - 1/5th I think (they were quite a bit more expensive). Out of interest did TT 225's: Nearly 20,000 left! Add in the more common 180's, the 190's and 150's: that is an amazing number still knocking about. As was said before, you can afford to be picky.
If another TT cropped up in a really good colour in the right condition fairly locally I might well still be tempted to look: a lot of the negatively yesterday was the condition of the actual example and what's happening in the world at the moment. Even so, my gut is to stick with the Roadster. I do have a Forester S Turbo that's been in storage for ages. Perhaps I should do a little resto of that and put it back on the road. That really is a good (brilliant) driver's car.
Like all of these things, it's fun to search the net, look at the ads, kick the idea around on a forum or two. Then you get there: do you get 'the fizz' or just want to turn around and drive home? For me, yesterday, it was the latter.
Thank you for all your inputs to the thread: very much appreciated
Barry