Despite popular belief, being enclosed in a metal box does not preclude you from injury, especially if your box is hit by another multi-ton metal box. Judging by the way some people drive, quite a few drivers seem to think that the metal box they are encased in will protect them from anything (Especially those driving 3-ton SUVs.—MAX). Those SUV drivers may be able to survive an impact with your Euro, but what about you and your car? Rising gas prices and high insurance costs make things hard enough for today’s road-going youth. Now it seems painfully obvious that a high percentage of drivers on the road just aren’t paying attention to what’s happening around them.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA at www.nht sa.dot.org.—MAX) accident statistics, “approximately 42 percent of all crashes and 58 percent of fatal crashes occur at night, or during other degraded visibility conditions. These 2.8 million annual police-reported crashes, including 23,000 fatal crashes, represent crashes in which reduced visibility may have been a contributing factor.” Being the champions of car modification that we are, we sought out some mods that would make it easier for people to see you, and for you to see others, without having to raise your car by three feet and adding flood lights. Muth Mirror Systems manufactures replacement mirrors with LED chevron assemblies that give people a better chance of seeing you. Because they are on the side mirrors, people are more likely to see your turn signals, as the mirrors not only protrude from your vehicle, but they also sit at eye-level for most drivers. Installation is quite easy, as long as you’re willing to take apart some of your interior and splice into the wiring.
Catz manufactures its Galaxy White bulbs for pretty much any application that you can dream of. We grabbed two pairs of H1-sized bulbs to replace the low beams and the driving/fog lights of our test Beetle. Considering that in the owner’s manual VW recommends taking your vehicle to your dealership to have the bulbs changed, we figured it might be worth showing you how it’s done, along with the mirror install. So, in the immortal words of Monty Python, “Have fun storming the castle.”