Why is it so hard to find decent floor mats !

"Jb boin" (jb-boin)
10/22/2020 at 02:09 • Filed to: Floor Mats, FloorMatLopnik, Audi A3 8L, Audi A3

The driver side floor mat on my A3 has been... well.. holed for a few months and recently a second hole started to develop ...

I have been wanting to change them for quite some time but Audi doesn’t seem to be making them in gray anymore and black would look bad as i have a beige carpet with a dark gray dashboard and dark green leather interior with a dark gray alcantara armrest (different interior parts come from at least 5 or 6 different cars from what i could count) .

The current ma ts were Audi ones that i did change (only the front ones) around 5 years ago (it was already around 60€ for only the front and the rear were not in too bad of a shape at the time so i did only change the front ones).

So i finally bought a set of 4 mats in “luxe ” quality (there was two lower quality levels ) for 55€ at a Dutch company that are making them in-house , i chose “graphite” gray (there was also black and anthracite that was darker than gr aphite) with anthracite trim.

I also did take a set of mats for my mother’s Citroën C3 Picasso in anthracite with anthracite trim.

—

I received them the other day ( having to go on my work hours take them to a shop near the city center where UPS left them because the company send them to my billing address at home instead of at work) , the new ones are denser than the Audi ones, not sure yet if i like that to drive but at least for the passenger(s) it will feel better :)

Sorry, i haven’t cleaned the car in a long time and i haven’t even tried to put the brake pedal cover straight (Aliexpress part ! ) :

Well, it’s the back of the old one, the poor thing :(

It’s truly impressive how th e photo make them look like it’s a totally different color which is not the case at all (probably a Samsung AI improvement...) , in the next photo you can see the comparison and they are not looking all that different.

Another issue is that the new ones have holes on their mounting tabs which IMO doesn’t look great compared to the closed OEM ones :

From the left : old Audi mat, anthracite mat for my mother’s C3 then the new graphite mat (you can see that the color is similar to the old one in this picture) then i thing th e rear of one of the new mats :

The new ones are not fitting perfectly, the mounting tabs are a b i t too close on the car so the mat is doing a little “bump” on the middle ; i has the same issue with the brand new Audi onew so i’m not worrying too much about that :

I also ha ven’t cleaner the leather of that car lately, sorry about that ; at least you can see that it’s green and not lavender :

Well,the rear ones... can fit but not as well as the original but without mounting tabs i am keeping the old ones for the moment :

I contacted the customer service and hope they can at least send me proper rear ones or refund me.

And while being doing all that, i realized that the clearcoat on the border of the roof was getting more fucked very quickly (it didn’t focus on the worst part that h as totaly lost all the clearcoat) :

DISCUSSION (14)

speedy964 > Jb boin
10/22/2020 at 03:38

I usually buy the rubber mats since they’re waterproof and hold up better than the carpeted ones.

Jb boin > speedy964
10/22/2020 at 03:45

I hate those, it makes sense if you live in a icy/muddy place though.

In all fairness, i don’t think it fared too bad in term of lifespan but it’s finding a quality replacement that fits and is qualitative (and doesn’t look ridiculous with stupid logos embroider ) that is problematic .

speedy964 > Jb boin
10/22/2020 at 04:38

I bought the first set when I worked at a tire and lube shop. The carpeted mats in my car got destroyed from all the grime my boots collected.

Svend > Jb boin
10/22/2020 at 04:44

I always buy genuine OEM velour mats, but get them from eBay, if you’ve time, you’ll often find the right ones at a better price than from a dealership. Usually because someone hasn’t listed all the information or listed incorrect information (but you can read the tags on the mats).

Many a time ‘tailored’ mats don’t fit. You’d think they’d buy a genuine set and trace or copy the dimensions, but no.

I bought one set for a Polo, that was listed for a Fabia (same floorplan), same mats. The dealer wanted £70, I got them from the eBay seller for £32 posted after he kept lowering the price due to lack of interest.

Jb boin > Svend
10/22/2020 at 05:26

Unfortunately, the non-black ones are not that common.

And your whole story gave me the answer to why they would send those strange not-totally wrong mats :

A3 8L :

Kinja'd!!!

Golf 4 :

Kinja'd!!!

Svend > Jb boin
10/22/2020 at 06:02

Ye’, some cars are identical and some aren’t but there are some that think the ones that aren’t, are. Lol. It’s infuriating.

Are you a member of an Audi or Audi A3 forum, club, group, etc... ?

They usually have either a place that’ll sell what you want or recommend ones that are correctly tailored for your car.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Jb boin
10/22/2020 at 08:11

I don’t know why anyone wants carpet mats. I’ve run factory winter mats in every car I’ve had since 2008 and could not be happier. Carpet underneath stays pristine, mats are easy to clean.