Car floor mats or floor liners? Which should you be using? In order to know the answer, it is important to learn what floor liners are and what are their pros and cons.
What Are Floor Liners?
Unlike carpet car floor mats, floor liners are made from thick rubber and are designed to “exactly” fit your vehicle’s floor. There is an emphasis on the word “exactly” because this is a very important feature of the floor liner. You see, floor liners are supposed to help protect the bare metal floor from rust and corrosion, which is often caused by water or liquid spilled on the floor or from drivers and passengers who comes in with wet shoes. This is why floor liners have deep wells between raised ridges in order to channel the water away and keep them from building up. Thus, when the floor liners do not exactly fit the vehicle’s floor, the water will easily find their way to the bare metal floor and cause damage.
Pros and Cons of Floor Liners
Vehicles that usually makes use of floor liners are those that are constantly exposed to harsh inclement weather like SUVs and trucks. Because of such exposure, these types of vehicles do not have carpeted floors (and are not recommended to have one as well). Sometimes, owners of such vehicles usually settle for car floor mats because that’s the most readily available. However, there are many issues with car floors mats since they are not as effective as floor liners. Keep in mind that floor liners are to be installed in the vehicle’s floors and this installation is what gives floor liners the ability to prevent water from damaging the floorboards.
Perhaps the problem with floor liners usually comes with improper installation. When the floor liner is not properly installed there will be gaps and wrinkling on the rubber which allows water to seep in. Also, floor liners can be challenging to remove and install back, which makes cleaning difficult, though this can be addressed with practice and experience.
Universal Floor Liners
As with car floor mats, there are sellers who sell universal floor liners, which are pretty popular because they are affordable. Although there are some good universal floor liners, it is imperative that you make sure that they fit your vehicle perfectly. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of owning one.
If you are looking for high quality floor mats and floor liners for your vehicles or even for car roof racks and car accessories, please feel free to get in touch with us through (02) 9723 3555 or send us a message in our contact page.