WARNING (Continued)■The lock tongue should only be inserted into the lock which is the correct
one for your seat. Wrong use of the safety belt will reduce its capacity to
protect and the risk of injury increases.■
The slot of the belt tongue must not be blocked otherwise the belt
tongue will not lock in place properly.
■
Many layers of clothing and loose clothing (e. g. a winter coat over a jack-
et) do not allow you to be correctly seated and impairs proper operation of
the seat belts.
■
It is prohibited to use clamps or other objects to adjust seat belts (e. g. for
shortening the belts for smaller persons).
■
The seat belts for the rear seats can only fulfil their function reliably
when the seat backrests are correctly locked into position » page 92.
WARNINGInformation on the care and maintenance of the safety belts■The belt webbing must always be kept clean. Soiled belt webbing may im-
pair proper operation of the inertia reel » page 187.■
The seat belts must not be removed or changed in any way. Do not at-
tempt to repair the seat belts yourself.
■
Check the condition of all the seat belts on a regular basis. If any damage
to the seat belts, seat belt connections, inertia reel or the lock is detected,
the relevant seat belt must be replaced by a specialist garage.
■
Damaged seat belts which have been subjected to stress in an accident
and were therefore stretched, must be replaced – this is best done by a
specialist garage. The anchorage points for the belts should also be
checked.
Note
The national legal requirements must be observed when using seat belts.The physical principle of a head-on collisionFig. 4
Driver without a fastened seat belt/rear seat passenger without a
fastened seat belt
Read and observe
on page 12 first.
As soon as the vehicle is moving, so-called kinetic energy (the energy of mo-
tion) is produced both in terms of the car as well as in terms of the occupants.
The magnitude of this kinetic energy depends essentially on the speed at
which the vehicle is travelling and on the weight of the vehicle including the
occupants. The greater the speed and weight increase, the greater the
amount of energy which has to be absorbed in the event of an accident.
The speed of the vehicle is the most important factor. Doubling the speed of
the vehicle from 25 km/h up to 50 km/hour increases the kinetic energy four
times.
The opinion that it is possible to support your body in a minor accident with
your hands, is incorrect. Even in a collision at only a low speed, the forces act-
ing on the body are such that it is no longer possible to support your body.
Even if you only drive at a speed of 30 km/h to 50 km/h, the forces that your
body is exposed to in the event of an accident can exceed a metric ton
(1000 kg).
For example, a person's weight of 80 kg “increases” at 50 km/h to 4.8 tons
(4800 kg).
In the event of a frontal collision, occupants of the car not wearing a seat belt
are thrown forward and strike parts of the interior of the car, such as the
steering wheel, dash panel, windscreen in ways which cannot be control-
led » Fig. 4 -
. In certain circumstances you could even be thrown out of the
vehicle, which could cause life threatening or even fatal injuries.
13Seat belts
The total permitted weight of the accessory including load changes with in-
creasing distance of the load centre of gravity from the ball head of the towing
hitch.Distance of the load
centre of gravity from the ball headPermissible total weight of the accessory, including load» Fig. 177Vehicles with front-wheel driveVehicles with four-wheel driveG-TEC vehicles0 cmA75 kg80 kg56 kg30 cmB75 kg75 kg56 kg60 cmC35 kg35 kg28 kg70 cmD0 kg0 kg0 kgWARNING■Never exceed the permissible total weight of the accessory including load
- there is a risk of damaging the ball head of the towing hitch.■
Never exceed the permissible protrusion of the ball head of the towing
hitch - there is a risk of damaging the ball head of the towing hitch.
Note
We recommend that you use accessories from ŠKODA Original Accessories.
Trailer
Introduction
This chapter contains information on the following subjects:
Attaching and detaching trailers
174
Loading a trailer
175
Trailer operation
176
Anti-theft alarm system
176
If your vehicle has already been factory-fitted with a towing device or is fitted
with a towing device from ŠKODA Original Accessories, then it meets all of the
technical requirements and national legal provisions for towing a trailer.
Note
If there is an error in the trailer lighting system, check the fuses in the fuse box
in the dashboard » page 229.Attaching and detaching trailersFig. 178
Swivel out the 13-pin power
socket, safety eyelet
Attaching
›
Fit the ball rod.
›
Grip the 13-pin socket at point
A
and swing out in the direction of the ar-
row » Fig. 178 .
›
Lift off protective cap
5
» Fig. 166 on page 169 .
›
Place the trailer onto the ball head.
›
Plug the trailer cable into 13-pin socket
A
» Fig. 178 .
If the trailer that is to be towed has a 7-pin connector, you can use a suitable
adapter from ŠKODA Original Accessories.
›
Hook the breakaway cable of the trailer to the security eyelet
B
.
When hooked into the safety eyelet, the breakaway cable of the trailer must
sag relative to the vehicle in all trailer positions (sharp curves, reverse driving
etc.).
174Driving
