[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference terri::cars_uk

Title:Cars in the UK
Notice:Please read new conference charter 1.70
Moderator:COMICS::SHELLEYELD
Created:Sun Mar 06 1994
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2584
Total number of notes:63384

946.0. "The Floor Mat note" by VOGON::BALL (Smiley face free zone :-)) Tue Jan 30 1990 19:33

Looking at the quotes on VTX, it seems that every quote seems to include Floor 
Mats.  I've now got a quote form in front of me and it even has Front Floor Mats 
filled in as an optional extra before you start.  What's so great about Floor
Mats?

*FLAME ON*

The sole purpose of floor mats is to protect the carpet below, but if you have 
floor mats in you never see the carpet so what's the point?  It's nearly as bad
as the people who leave the plastic seat covers on their new cars!

The only conceivably half-way sensible reason for having them is to increase the
resale value of the car by about 75p because the carpet is cleaner.  On lease 
cars its the lease company which has to resell them anyway so this doesn't
apply.

I don't have floor mats in my current car.  I don't want floor mats in a lease
car!  

Are you charged for floor mats?  If they're quoted as an extra I presume they're
not included in the basic price of the car.  That means people who don't want
floor mats are paying every month for something that justs clutters up the
garage for 30 months!  

Has anyone tried writing "NO FLOOR MATS REQUIRED" in big letters across the 
form?  Did it work?

Join me now in my campaign against the tyranny of floor mats!

*FLAME OFF*

Phew, I feel better for that...

Jon
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
946.1SAC::PHILPOTT_ICol I F 'Tsingtao Dhum' PhilpottTue Jan 30 1990 19:567
946.2Incredible moulting matsPANIC::WINTERDo You Stop When You Hit A Rock ?Tue Jan 30 1990 20:1110
    
    
    I'm really irritated with the floor mats supplied with my car, I
    was supplied with the "Deluxe" moulting floor mats which have left
    little bits of black bits all over the carpet. It makes the inside
    of the car look a mess.
    
    Yours "5 quid a month for a mess" 
    
    Sean
946.3CHEFS::CLEMENTSDPublic Sector and TelecommsTue Jan 30 1990 20:3233
946.4I like them...UKCSSE::RDAVIESLive long and prosperWed Jan 31 1990 14:027
    The floor mats supplied by Hertz in my Citroen were Citroen originals.
    Personally I think they do help keep the car clean, and I think
    originals are vastly superior to 'bits shops' cheapies as they stay
    where they're supposed to. Interesting that this has just come up,
    they've been on the quotes as long as I can remember. 
    
    Richard
946.5CURRNT::PREECEAtonal apples and amplified heat...Wed Jan 31 1990 14:1712
    
>>    resale value of the car by about 75p because the carpet is cleaner.  On lease 
>>cars its the lease company which has to resell them anyway so this doesn't
>>apply.

  I *suspect* (anybody know for sure ?) that the final cost to DEC of
    a lease car is affected by it's resale value.  In other words, we
    get something back if it's in good nick at the end of it's term.
    My last employer used to have this deal, and went to considerable
    trouble to keep us aware of it !  
    
    Ian
946.6VANILA::LINCOLNReality is not what it seemsWed Jan 31 1990 15:087
	These floor mats sound like the Lease equivalent of windscreen
	washer fluid at a service.

	You know the stuff they charge you a full bottle's worth  even
	when you take the car in with the reservoirs full.

	-John
946.7CHEFS::CLEMENTSDPublic Sector and TelecommsWed Jan 31 1990 15:1221
    Re the last one tho' we may be going down a Lease T's and C's rathole.
    
    
    Moderator persons, if there is a need for a separate note on just the
    lease scheme perhaps you could decide?
                     
    Just who is the customer on the lease, Digital or us the paying
    punters? If there is money to come back to anybody at the end of
    the lease surely it should be to us and not the company? Over the
    last 4 cars my lease payments have averaged (over 30 months) almost
    exactly the list price of the car when new: lease company does NOT
    pay list but can be up to 20% off. They sell the car at the end
    for a resale value which has been increasing to silly figures over
    the last few years. But, resale value, we are told is one of thevreasons
    foe high lease costs to us (doesn't compute so far does it?) so
    it seems that PHH/Hertz are getting money off us in high lease costs
    and then raking it in in high residual value at the end of the lease.
    
    Like several back Front floor mats have been on the car quote form
    since the days of tablets of stone ...........    
    
946.8UKCSSE::RDAVIESLive long and prosperWed Jan 31 1990 16:1013
    re .7
    Dave, this argument is perrenial, there are already a proliferation of
    notes with comments about how unfair/expensive/slow/good/beneficial/???
    The scheme is, I think frankly it's a waste of time trying to round them
    all up into one note as another one is bound to start up on a
    different vein (like this one :-) ) but on the same basic subject.
    
    THE DIGITAL LEASE SCHEME!
    Good or bad you have to live with it!.
    
    Richard
    
    (that's not to say you won't keep complaining anyway :-) )
946.9SUBURB::PARKERWed Jan 31 1990 16:2913
    I guess I can understand Digital wanting the carpets kept in reasonable
    nick; I don't mind them insisting on floormats being supplied.
    
    However, the one under the driver's seat gets consigned to the boot,
    for safety reasons. A piece of mat sliding round the floor is an
    unstable base for the feet which are doing some of the controlling
    of the car, and also tend at times to ruck up under the brake pedal,
    and all of a sudden the brakes don't seem to work.
    
    So why do I put it in the boot, rather than the garage? They do
    make handy driving mats in case you get stuck in sand or mud.
    
    Steve
946.10I find them usefullTLE::LEGERLOTZI came. I saw. I left.Wed Jan 31 1990 16:5413
I've always gotten carpeted floor mats for my cars.  The dealer sells them in
many cases - they're usually the same colour as the carpet in the car.

I find them convienient because you can use them until they get really crappy, 
and then go buy another set of them.  If they get full of sand (tracked in on
your shoes in the winter), you can just lift them out, beat them, and vaccuum
them.  For people who drive long distances on the motorway (salesmen for
example) rest their accelerator foot on same part of the carpet - all the time.
The fact that the driver's heel is digging down into the same spot all of the 
time will ultimately cause a hole in the carpet.  If there are floor mats, the
hole appears in them.  New floormats, no unsightly hole...

-Al
946.11CHEFS::CLEMENTSDPublic Sector and TelecommsWed Jan 31 1990 17:479
 
    Robin,  thanks for at least being an active moderator that at least
    takes his responsibilities seriously!

    
    Regs,

    Dick (who believes that the ultimate sanction that a punter has
    is to vote with his/her feet and doesn't like not to have that option)
946.12UKCSSE::RDAVIESLive long and prosperWed Jan 31 1990 19:4513
>>                      <<< Note 946.9 by SUBURB::PARKER >>>
>>    However, the one under the driver's seat gets consigned to the boot,
>>    for safety reasons. A piece of mat sliding round the floor is an
>>    unstable base for the feet which are doing some of the controlling
>>    of the car, and also tend at times to ruck up under the brake pedal,
>>    and all of a sudden the brakes don't seem to work.
    
    Again, it obviously depends on the supplier: The citroen one is a heavy
    rubber, fitted perfectly to the footwell, it NEVER slides or rucks. My
    only complaint would be that it is difficult to wipe off wet shoes on a
    rubber mat, for that you need the carpet.
    
    Richard
946.13Just to keep my feet dry.UTROP1::BOSMAN_PThu Feb 01 1990 10:4615
    Hmm..
    
    I took the original carpeting out of our Ninety and replaced it
    with a rubber floor matt. It helps draining the vehicle when I get
    it soaked again.                                                 
    
    A lot of snow or rain will get the floor of any car pretty wet.
    The carpeting takes ages to dry as your car floor is poorly ventilated.
    The moist collects at the lowest point and the floor starts to rot.
    But since you all seem to be leasing you won't have the car anymore
    when the effects begin to show from the underside.
    
    For the rest it's up to personal preferance and thats it.
    
    Peter
946.14CD = Carpet Deluxe !!WARNUT::SMITHCYou're OK, come on, keep going, BANG !!!Thu Feb 01 1990 13:3310
    re:mats sliding around.
    
    My Astra CD comes with "luxury" mats as standard. They're brill. Same
    carpeting as the main carpet (uh?), cut to the right shape for the car,
    *and* have press studs which fix them to the main carpet so that they
    cannot slide aound !!
    
    Mind you, the PHH ones look really tacky on top of them :-) :-)
    
    Colin
946.15Why lease?IOSG::MARSHALLScott &quot;Wanted: Garage to rent&quot;Thu Feb 01 1990 13:344
Everyone I've spoken to thinks the lease scheme is a rip-off.  There seems to be
a lot of unhappy feeling about it in this note.  So why do people do it?
IAMFI.
Scott.
946.16YUPPY::FINNMon Feb 05 1990 16:3310
    CAR FLEET PLEASE NOTE
    
    My car was also supplied with "off-the-shelf" floor mats rather
    than the manufacturer's model. I considered it dangerous, on the
    grounds that it moves around, and so I too have consigned it to
    the boot, where it will remain for the rest of the lease.
    
    MORAL: If the Fleet Department wants to keep the carpet clean in
    order to keep the resale value high, they should INSIST that all
    vehicles are supplied with the manufacturer's floormats.
946.17NEARLY::GOODENOUGHWed Feb 07 1990 16:533
    Is there a lease note I can reply to .15 in?
    
    J
946.18CHEFS::CLEMENTSDPublic Sector and TelecommsThu Feb 08 1990 13:421
    re .17 you could try "the usual rathole" 925, I think.....