2017 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE seats

d Make sure that the floormat on the driver side is properly fastened and cannot interfere with the pedals.
d Assume a proper seating position before the vehicle starts to move and keep this position while
driving. Make sure that all passengers do the same ⇒  Adjusting the seating position.
d Properly fasten your safety belt before driving the vehicle and wear your safety belt properly at all
times while driving. Make sure that all passengers do the same ⇒  Safety belts.
d Only transport as many passengers as there are seats and safety belts available.
d Never drive if your driving ability has been impaired, for example, by medication, alcohol, or illegal drugs.
d Never let passengers or phone calls distract you while driving and never take your attention off the road while using vehicle software or adjusting vehicle equipment or accessories.
d Always adapt your speed and driving style to visibility, weather, road, and traffic conditions.
d Always obey traffic laws and speed limits.
d On long trips make frequent rest stops – at least once every 2 hours.
d Secure animals in the vehicle with a system that corresponds to their weight and size.
WARNING
Always observe traffic rules and posted speed limits and use common sense. Your good judgment can mean the difference between arriving safely at your destination and being seri-ously injured in a crash or other kind of accident.
Regular service and maintenance of your vehicle is important both for operational and driving safety and to help prolong your vehicle's service life. Always follow the scheduled maintenance inter-
vals in the ⇒ Booklet Warranty and Maintenance, especially for changing the brake fluid. Hard use, frequent stop-and-go driving, driving in very dusty areas, trailer towing, and other factors may make it necessary to have the vehicle serviced more frequently. Ask an authorized Volkswagen dealer or an authorized Volkswagen Service Facility for more information.
Driving in other countries

WARNING
Always adjust seat, safety belts, and head restraints properly before driving and make sure that all passengers are properly restrained.
x Push the passenger seat as far back as possible. Always be sure that there are at least 10 inches (25 cm) between the front passenger's breastbone and the instrument panel.
x Always adjust the driver's seat and the steering wheel so that there are at least 10 inches (25 cm) between your breastbone and the steering wheel.
x Adjust the driver's seat so that you can easily push the pedals all the way to the floor while keeping your knee(s) slightly bent. The distance to the instrument panel in the knee area must be at least 4 inches (10 cm).
x If these requirements cannot be met for physical reasons, contact an authorized Volkswagen dealer or an authorized Volkswagen Service Facility to see whether adaptive equipment is available.
x Always hold the steering wheel on the outside of the steering wheel rim with your hands at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions to help reduce the risk of personal injury if the driv-er's airbag inflates.
x Never hold the steering wheel at the 12 o'clock position or with your hands at other places inside the steering wheel rim or on the steering wheel hub. Holding the steering wheel the wrong way can cause serious injuries to the hands, arms, and head if the driver's airbag in-flates.
x Pointing the steering wheel toward your face decreases the ability of the driver's airbag to help protect you in a collision.
x Never drive with backrests reclined or tilted back farther than necessary to drive comfort-ably. The farther back the backrests are tilted, the greater the risk of injury caused by incor-rect positioning of the safety belts and improper seating position.
x Never drive with the front seat passenger backrest tilted forward. If the front airbag de-ploys, the front backrest can be forced backward and injure passengers on the rear seat.
x Sit as far back as possible from the steering wheel and the instrument panel.
x Always sit upright with your back against the backrest with the front seats properly ad-justed. Never lean against or place any part of your body too close to the area where the air-bags are located.
x Rear seat passengers who are not properly seated and restrained are more likely to be seriously injured in a crash.
WARNING
Improper adjustment of the seats can cause accidents and severe injuries.
x Never adjust the seats while the vehicle is moving. Your seat may move unexpectedly and you could lose control of the vehicle. In addition, you will not be in the correct seating posi-tion while adjusting the seats.
x Adjust the front seat height, angle and longitudinal direction only if the seat adjustment area is clear.
x The adjustment of the front seats must not be restricted by things in the footwell in front or behind the seats.

WARNING
Some kinds of cigarette lighters can be lit unintentionally, or crushed causing a fire that can result in serious burns and vehicle damage.
x Always make sure that there are no lighters in the seat tracks or near other moving parts before adjusting the seats.
x Before closing a storage compartment, always make sure that no cigarette lighter can be activated, crushed, or otherwise damaged.
x Never leave a cigarette lighter in a storage compartment, on the instrument panel, or in other places in the vehicle. Heat buildup in the passenger and luggage compartment of a parked vehicle can result in temperatures in the vehicle that are much higher than the outside temperatures, particularly in summer. High temperatures could cause the cigarette lighter to catch fire.
Examples of improper seating positions

Manual controls on the driver and front passenger seats

Fig. 37 Controls on the left front seat.

WARNING
A wet seat can cause the seat heating to malfunction and increase the risk of serious burns.
x Always make sure the seats are dry before using the seat heating.
x Never sit on the seat with wet clothes.
x Never put damp or wet things including clothes on the seat.
x Never spill liquids on the seats.
NOTICE
x To help prevent damage to electrical and other parts in the seat, do not kneel on the front seats or apply concentrated pressure to a small area of the seat or backrest.
x Liquids, sharp objects and things that do not let the heat in the seat escape into the air, including, for example, a child restraint, a blanket, or seat covers on the seat can damage seat heating.
x If you smell an odor, immediately shut off seat heating and have it checked by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Never install leather upholstery on a vehicle with seat heating that originally had cloth upholstery. The seat heating elements for seats with cloth seats will overheat if the cloth up-holstery is replaced with leather upholstery.
Switch off seat heating when it is not needed to help reduce unnecessary fuel consumption.

The physical principles of a frontal collision are simple. Both the moving vehicle and the passenger
possess energy ⇒ fig. 46, which varies with vehicle speed and body weight. Engineers call this energy “kinetic energy.”
The higher the speed of the vehicle and the greater the vehicle's weight, the more energy has to be “absorbed” in a crash.
Vehicle speed is the most significant factor. If your speed doubles (for example, from 15 mph to 30 mph – 25 km/h to 50 km/h), the energy increases 4 times!
Because the occupants of the vehicle in the above example are not using safety belts, they are not “attached” to the vehicle. In a frontal collision, they will keep moving at the same speed the vehicle was moving just before the crash, until something stops them - here, the inside of the passenger compartment. Because the occupants of the vehicle in the example are not wearing safety belts, their
entire kinetic energy will be absorbed by impact with the wall ⇒ fig. 47.
The same principles apply to people in a vehicle that is in a frontal collision on the highway. Even at city speeds of 20–30 mph (30–50 km/h), the forces acting on the body can reach one ton (2,000 lbs or 1,000 kg) or more. At greater speeds, these forces are even higher.
Of course, the laws of physics don't apply just to frontal collisions; they determine what happens in all kinds of accidents and collisions.
What happens to passengers not wearing a safety belt

Fig. 48 The unbelted driver is thrown forward.

Fig. 49 Unbelted passengers in the rear seats are thrown forward on top of the belted driver.

Turn the thumbwheel to the desired position (2):
Position Vehicle loading condition5
– Front seats occupied and an empty luggage compartment.
1 All seats occupied and an empty luggage compartment.
1.5 All seats occupied and a fully loaded luggage compartment
2 Only the driver seat occupied and a fully loaded luggage compartment.
3 –

WARNING
Headlights that are aimed too high because of the way the vehicle is loaded can blind and distract other drivers. This can lead to a crash and serious personal injuries.
x Always make sure the headlights are adjusted to loading conditions so that they do not blind others.
Interior and reading lights

Fig. 75 Thumbwheel next to the steering wheel.

WARNING
Some kinds of cigarette lighters can be lit unintentionally, or crushed causing a fire that can result in serious burns and vehicle damage.
x Always make sure that there are no lighters in the seat tracks or near other moving parts before adjusting the seats.
x Before closing a storage compartment, always make sure that no cigarette lighter can be activated, crushed, or otherwise damaged.
x Never leave a cigarette lighter in a storage compartment, on the instrument panel, or in other places in the vehicle. Heat buildup in the passenger and luggage compartment of a parked vehicle can result in temperatures in the vehicle that are much higher than the outside temperatures, particularly in summer. High temperatures could cause the cigarette lighter to catch fire.
NOTICE
x The defroster heating wires or antenna in the rear window can be damaged by hard or sharp things on the shelf below the rear window.
x Do not keep any food, medicine, or other items sensitive to heat or cold in the vehicle. They can be damaged or made unusable by heat or cold.
x Things that are made of transparent materials (such as eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, or transparent suction cups on the windows) can magnify sunlight and damage the vehicle.
The ventilation slots in the luggage compartment must not be blocked so that stale air can es-cape from the vehicle.
Storage compartment in the doors

Fig. 98 In the driver door: Storage compartment.