Floor mat question

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Odyinid:
In about a week I will be picking up my '01 TW EX and I was wondering how many of you have Weather Tech floor mats and what you think of them. I was thinking of ordering them but wasn't sure if I should spend the $80.00 on them or see if there was something that was just as good but less expensive? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

</font>

Click to expand...

Congratulations and welcome to the club!

I have the Weathertechs, but only use them in the winter. They fit perfectly. The only complaint I have with them are that the front mats let water and slush run off the side to the door sills. This is due partly to the fact that the Ody floor slopes outward at the sills and partly to the lack of a deep enough or high enough edge around the mat to contain the water. Weathertech could have done a better job on the design, especially since keeping water trapped is what they're supposed to do best.

In all other parts of the car, they do a great job of containment.


------------------
Chuck
Click here for Ody pics, mods and fixes.

Nyvram wrote: "Chuck; you dont have any altenate mats to protect your carpeting except in the winter?"

I also have the Honda mats. I use them during the rest of the year.
------------------------------------------

...and odyinid wrote: "Thanks! Did you also get the Weather Tech cargo mat or the Honda cargo mat also? If you have any experience with those what are your thoughts?"

No, sorry, no cargo mat at all. I bought a couple of cheap, thin 4x6' rugs that match my carpet and cover part or all of the whole area when needed, but store under the rear seat when not in use.

I never did find anything that really suited me because I wanted to be able cover the whole cargo area if necessary and the mats won't do that. The carpets are just something that work until I find something better.

------------------
Chuck
Click here for Ody pics, mods and fixes.

For what it's worth, we took a slightly different approach to the floormat problem. Our Honda OEM floor mats were trashed after one year. I didn't want to spend $150 on new Honda mats and the Weathertechs weren't exactly what we were looking for. So... we bought stainguarded tight-weave berber carpet and installed it. Here are the deatils:

1. a 5'x12' piece will cover the entire interior of the van. For us this cost about $45. Select a hi-hide color/pattern that matches the color of your interior.

2. use your existing mats as guides for the hard shapes. The front mat makes a perfect guide for the front of the carpet, but run it long so you can tab the carpet under the driver and passenger seats and run it under the tray. Use the two back mats (plus the gap between them) to guide the back section.

3. Create two sections. The first (as described above) runs just to the back of the front seats and under the tray. The second runs from under the front seats to the back of the van.

4. Leave the sides about two inches wider than the mats. That way you can tuck the carpet under the floor moldings at the outer edges for a finished look (just pop the moldins up, lay the carpet under and pop them back down).

In the back section you can either cut it off to end at the well, or leav it to fit the entire surface - and then just roll up the back part of it when you have the third row seat up. However, this may slightly block the back heater vent. We cut ours off at the well because we also have the rubber cargo mat for when the seat is down.

The whole installation took about one hour (with several sharp utility knives). The great thing is that for $45 I've got a stain resistant surface that I won't feel bad about replacing in a few years (cause it's cheap) and I know have a pattern for when I need to replace it (using the old carpet).

[This message has been edited by nedlyj (edited 07-05-2001).]

Good idea!

------------------
Chuck
Click here for Ody pics, mods and fixes.