Car Accessories: Find the Best Automotive Floor Mats for your car
Car flooring mats are accessories of all shapes, materials, and forms meant to protect the rugs they lay upon in the vehicle cabin against dirt and deterioration. While rubber mats are the preferred type for heavier, more careless use, velvet sets are on the comfier, more relaxed side, for example. But floor mats are accessories that can also embellish a car interior, as they prove to be as practical as customizable.
Car manufacturers such as Toyota, Chevrolet, Tesla, Ford, Honda, and Mercedes offer labeled flooring mats designed to fit their many different car models flawlessly. However, when said factory-tailored options are out of stock, drivers are presented with a wide array of "universal" one-size-fits-all car floor mats. How to pick the right set and clean it is what the following article is about, so stick around!
Full Car Floor Mats: Pick the right Kind!
Car mats are sold by the unit, per set of two (front or rear) or a complete set of four (both front and rear of the vehicle interior), depending on the option you are after.- Out of all the floor mats, the driver's is by far the most recognizable, as it features a reinforcement pad. Wearing and tearing more rapidly than others, it is better to look for a mat sold with thick plastic or rubber padding to help prevent damage due to the extensive use of the pedals and constant consequential friction of the heels. Floor liners are also a useful addition to consider.
- The passenger mat is usually as wide, if not slightly larger than the driver. As opposed to the former, there is no particular detail to pay attention to when looking to purchase one, as they are generally not padded for extra durability nor are they subject to as much extensive use as the driver mat.
- Unlike the driver and passenger mats, the rear floor mats may prove harder to fit your car model if not bought at your dealer's, as they tend to be smaller in size and rarely symmetrical in shape unless cut in the "universal" one-size-fits-all fashion.
Buy the best possible mats for your car
No car accessory is as crucial as the flooring mats, simply because they substantially help reduce damage to the rug underneath them. They will take the beating, not your car rugs, which would otherwise be a pain in the neck to get fixed and cost you way more than a standard 5 to 70 USD mat!
When bought at a dealer's, you will at least be sure to have the appropriate set neatly placed, without the all-too-common unpleasant surprise of unevenly-fitting "universal" mats leaving certain parts of your rugs stripped.
Whatever your choice might be, always pick a set with sturdy and reliable mounting features. Good mounting features help ensure that your mats do not come off and start moving around while driving. While car manufacturers guarantee that the default factory mats are designed not to come off, making sure they are strapped to the rugs is particularly important when cruising around, especially regarding safety. If not well attached to the rug underneath, a car floor mat can easily roll up and, worst-case scenario, obstruct access to the pedals, thus hindering the ability to speed up or break when needed.
Depending on the manufacturer, several versions are available:
- Plastic hooks;
- Magnetized stitching;
- Velcro-type strips;
- etc.
Try to opt for quality car floor mats
While fabric-woven car floor mats may look nicer, they tend to be more problematic to clean up. Plastic options are undoubtedly easier to wash and offer better durability, but they lack comfort. Thinner mats are more prone to showing early telltale marks of deterioration than thicker models, usually targeted at drivers that drive hundreds of kilometers daily. Moreover, a passenger or rear mat may not require that you spend as much as you would a driver's, thus making opting for cheaper "universal" one-size-fits-all options all the more sensible.
While personal preferences vary from one car owner to the next, all in all, quality is another non-negligible element to take into account when choosing your new set of car floor mats. Universal mats may be cheaper, but they will probably not last you near as long as a quality mat would. Therefore, spending a little more on quality custom-made car floor mats is never a bad investment in that regard, all things considered, so keep that in mind.
Beige Leather & Beige Coils Car Floor Mats Set
How to take care of the maintenance and cleaning of car floor mats?
Plastic or all-weather rubber-type mats are easy to clean: some lukewarm water or any specific plastic cleaner will do the trick. While window sprays are used sometimes as multi-purpose cleaners, many contain alcohol which can, in the long run, dry out and damage your mat.
As for fabric-made mats, vacuum-cleaning them first and brushing them vigorously afterward is key to getting all the dirt off them and ensuring all the dust particles come off. Dirtier car floor mats, especially light-colored ones, can always use extra care with the help of cleaning products for stains.
To better avoid not having to spend never-ending amounts of time cleaning your mats, one piece of advice would be not to neglect nor postpone any intermediary cleanup. The longer you wait in between two cleaning sessions, the deeper stains and dust will penetrate.
