I know this is a five-year-old post, but I thought I'd add this in case anyone is going nuts trying to figure out this airbag light problem as I did, and stumbles upon this site:
There is a wiring harness under the seats that connects the side airbags to the buckles on the seat belts. It's a razor-thin four-strand ribbon wire that plugs into the base of the seatbelt receiver. If you look, you can easily spot it and I guarantee it is broken. Apparently, VW made the wire too short, so that pushing the seat back and forth, or in the case of a collision, the seatbelt locks up, tugs, and the skinny wires just snap, resulting in an airbag light. Don't even think about splicing the wires. They are "voltage sensitive" and you might get an airbag exploding in your face.
Call me crazy, but that sounds like a safety recall item. However, the US government and VW don't see it that way. Likewise, they don't feel that oil sludging on a 39,000 mile car still in warranty is their problem, although they will gladly take $5000 from you to rebuild the top-end of the engine. While they are in there, make sure they replace the plastic waterpump and the belt tensioner on the timing belt, which are also designed for early failure.
Apparently, it's also normal for the door handles to snap off of a 5-year-old car, and for the headliner and most of the interior plastic parts to fall off or crack.
If you break a door handle, they'll be glad to sell you the whole door panel for $400, as long as you're willing to do the labor yourself. If you're living right, you might find a used one for about $150, although that's doubltful, but then if you do, you'll probably have to have a body shop repaint the top fiberglass panel, which is color-keyed to the exterior, unless you're really lucky and find one the same color. If not, you can pay a trim shop an extra $40 to change out the top of the panel, if it isn't already cracked. While you're there, have them replace the peeling vinyl on the door panels of the "leather" interior, along with the drooping headliner.
The other really fine feature of this car is the suspension. Mine is a Turbo GLS, which I assume has the racing suspension. That means that I can actually enter a driveway at almost one-mile per-hour with only minimal damage to the front spoiler.
My other sporty car is a 99 Miata with 250K miles on it. It burns a quart of oil every 2000 miles. Otherwise, it runs like the day it left the showroom and gets 25mpg.
But the VW Turbo, although it only gets about 19mpg, is still a much better car: It's just so damn cute.