Early Audi TT as winter car?

I've seen a few 00-01 Quattro TT's for sale recently around challenge price. I wonder how bad living with one would be as a winter DD. I know they don't have "real Quattro" but I've gotten along with 2wd for the last 20 years or so. I'm ok with CEL as we don't have emissions checks here anymore as long as everything works like it should. I've sworn off German cars as DD's a few times, but I think I have Stockholm syndrome. 

my commute is 45 minutes on a well maintained highway, that does get lots of snowfall.  

For comparison my current winter vehicle is an 87 4runner with snows. It's slow, but I've only had to put it in 4wd once.  

They're lovely when they work. I had a 2000 1.8 2wd for about five years. Weird random body electrical issues (windows and door latches mostly) and most of the plastic in the engine bay was starting to self destruct when we passed it on. If they work, and you don't have to work on them, I love them. 

Huh.  You're pretty far north.  Trade a truck for an Audi TT for a winter commuter?  I dunno.  Not something I would likely do, well not unless I had completely taken leave of my senses!

My mom has one of those, although it might be slightly later than that.  Maybe an 02 or 03, not sure.  Turbo 1.8, Quattro system.  I cringe whenever she says "I have a car question".  There is absolutely no way to get to anything under the hood even after you remove so much plastic that it makes that thing floating in the Pacific look like a teething ring.

Also, they apparently had a problem with the dash board or gauge cluster.  If it was fixed under warranty, great.  But if you have to do it yourself understand that that step one in the process of building those cars back in Germany or Mexico or whatever torture chamber spawned these was "levitate the dashboard over the assembly line".

If you plan to only change the oil and then throw it away when it breaks, do it.  They're fun to drive and good looking.  I always thought it felt a bit piggish, but it responds well to being thrown into a turn despite that.

watching a youtuber's series on her mk1 TT has really put me off on owning and working on one

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Our roads get taken care of really well. It snows a lot, but the plows are constantly going and there's rarely more than 1-2" of snow on the road. Unless you're on backroads, drifts are never an issue. Before the 4runner, I drove a rwd e46 that was slightly lowered and never got stuck. 

Based on the responses here, I'm pretty sure it's an awful idea and I should pass. I think manual awd would be lots of fun up here, but it's really hard to find on something that won't be a maintenance nightmare.  

In reply to mw :

Yah, I'm actually very much a fan of Audi.  My wife purchased an A6 with the 2.7 twin turbo brand new and had a very positive ownership experience, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one new. 

Picking up a good used one will require a balance of skill and luck, but I think finding a reliable one might be a pretty long shot.

As a former manager of a chain of auto repair shops, you'll be doing our industry a big favor.  Let me send you my card.  You'll need it.

98-07 VW and Audi were our bread and butter.  For giggles one time I used our invoicing software to sort our gross (not profit) revenue by make.  VW and Audi together comprised nearly 35% of our income.  Considering that we worked on anything, and the next biggest was Dodge at 12%, that was an eye opener.

Things may have changed with the parts world, but many of the VAG parts rights were strictly held by VAG.  So when your crankcase vent hose turns into dust, you'll find that it is nearly $200 and only available at a dealer parts counter.  Once you paid $200 and get it, you realize that it is made from unsplit wire loom material that disintegrates in the presence of hydrocarbons.  Any attempt to just replace the hose with $4 rubber hose is completely futile because it connects with a very odd, shrouded O-ring fitting.  They made sure A) that the part was absolutely going to fail, B) completely impossible to replace with anything else, and C) kept the rights to it so they could hold a monopoly and sell the part for whatever they want.

True colors.