When I first started using the car, I didn't realize how important car mats can be. After all, they are just meant to rest your feet on, right? How does it matter what kind of mats we use? I learnt by experiencing different kinds of foot mats over the years, that these things aren't just cosmetic accessories. For the casual passenger, yes they are just cosmetic eye-candy or sore sights, but not for the driver.
Foot mats can be annoying to use
- If they improperly trap dirt and gravel. The friction of rough stones against the mat and your shoes is one of the most irritating sounds.
- When you get into the car with wet shoes on rainy days, the mats can get squishy and make gross, rubbery, squeaky sounds every time you use one of the 3 foot pedals and/or make contact with the mats.
- If the size and shape of the mats are not matching that of the footwell area. Improper size of the mats will allow slipping and sliding within the footwell area, turning into a potentially dangerous situation when you really need to brake hard in emergencies without your foot slipping away.
- If the mats are made of fabric and/or can get wet. Fabric carpets especially, can trap moisture and can breed bacteria and fungi. Needless to add, they will promote a foul odour inside the cabin.
An example of muddy, dirty foot mats
Back in our humble M800 at home 10 years ago, we used rubber mats - yes, the common, ribbed rubber mats like in the picture above. They slipped and slided, got dirty, even tore in a few places, but to me they looked fashionable back then. I don't think I was aware that there were other types of mats available. Hey, I wasn't a team-bhp member back then! How would I know about these product reviews.
In our next 2 cars at home, the 2006 Swift and my Accent, we still went for the flimsy rubber mats, main reason being the ability to wash and dry the mats in a jiffy.
Fast forward to 2011. I bought the T-Jet, and with it came some fabric carpets from the OEM dealer. They were good to look at, but my worst nightmares came true on rainy days when I had to use the car, sometimes with parents (which meant another 2 dirty mats). The fabric would get wet with the slush. The slush would then dry up, form chunks of mud which would crumble away later and make the whole floor area dirty and stained. Washing it would take a lot of time, drying it would take even longer!
In June 2012, I upgraded to 3D Kagu mats for the Linea, which look good and provide for a classy interior ambience, more so because my beige mats gel well with the black and beige interior theme. They made it look very classy. Agreed. But coming to the basic fact - the 3D mats were nothing but waterproof trays. They were washable all right, but they weren't practical for everyday abuse. Why? Because the tray-shape mat just becomes an open plate with all your shoe dirt accumulating inside. Your shoes soon start rubbing against the dirt and stones. On rainy days, the water directly collects there, so there was no freedom from the rubbery sounds of wet shoes either.
3D Kagu mats ensure a perfect fit in the footwell area, and look very classy by improving the interior ambience, as seen in the picture here of my Linea. They do hold a lot of dirt and stones which will roll around within the mat or hamper feet movement after a while, which is annoying
Fast forward to 2012 November: I bought my Punto, a daily drive car that I started using for my rather longish office commute. I was looking for replacement mats for the floor area to throw out the OEM ones. I wanted to steer clear of 3D Kagu mats and all their imposter imitation products, because I didn't want to keep washing floor mat trays every other day. I wanted something more practical, something that could take some abuse in terms of dirtying, and not take too much time to clean.
On one of my detailing trips to the 3M car care store, I happened to ask them about the 3M nomad mats that they had displayed there. Those looked like any other regular foot mats that people put outside homes and offices. Initially when they told me the pricing would be almost the same as 3D mats, I ruled it out in my mind considering the plain-jane (in fact even cheap) looks. On further enquiring about the details and about why it costed so high, the staff members at the store did a small demo session where they poured water and mud into the mat and showed how the mat sucked in everything, leaving nothing on the top at all. That meant that I could step in and out of the car with muddy shoes, dusty shoes, beach sandals, whatever. The mats would trap all the dirt, gravel and water and I could just take the mats out at my convenience and turn them upside down to eject that dust whenever I had time. Exactly what I needed! Eureka moment! How about the looks part? I somehow compromised on that.
Nomad mats are quite thick
I got impressed by the nomad mats' advantages displayed at the store
They were giving a demo of the mats to some other customer, which I recorded on video and cutoff the staff member's voice:
The video shows clearly how the mats just suck in all muck and water and leave nothing on top. The paper rubbed on the 3m mat has no water in the end, while the other paper is literally soaked!
A closer look at the nomad mats: they just look like any other noodle-pattern foot mats found at local shops
![Uncontrollable Laughter](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/uncontrollable laughter.png)
, but they are very capable mats.
It rains unpredictably in Bangalore, and I wash my car at unpredictable frequencies too. These nomad mats gave me exactly what I was looking for in a daily commute vehicle - freedom from regular mat maintenance. I wanted to buy these mats purely for the practicality, but still wanted to go for the best looking option among them, so I asked them if they had anything other than Grey color (I hate that color on floor mats personally - looks cheap to me). They had beige and black too, so I went for black, being a neutral shade. Beige wouldn't have gone with the Punto's black/grey interiors anyway. The mats are measured and cut to the exact dimensions of each car's footwell zones. This ensures a snug fit, so there is no slipping and sliding when you move the foot against the mat while driving.
Cutting the mats to fit the Punto's footwell dimensions
This is the driver side front foot mat
And when fitted in the car, this is how it looks
And here's the rear portion, again cut to fit the dimensions exactly
This is the rear centre portion which goes on the transmission hump, again cut to fit around the bottle holder panel
It has been 5 months since I fitted the 3M Nomad mats, and I am thoroughly impressed with the fit-it, forget-it nature of these mats. I deliberately held back for all these months since I wanted to thoroughly put it through all kinds of tests before writing my version of a product review.
Let me summarize what I've experienced so far: Product: 3M Nomad foot mats
Targeted at: cars mainly, but also works for home and office entrances I think.
Size: custom-made (cut) for each car to perfectly sit in the respective vehicle's footwell dimensions. There is no pre-made size for any car, unlike 3D Kagus.
Available at: All 3M car care outlets across India, and local accessory shops too.
Color choices available: Black, Grey and Beige.
Application time: half an hour
Price: Depends on car's floor area. Prices are approximately 10-15% lesser than 3D Kagu mats. 3M has measured and prepared a table showing the mat-fitting costs for all cars depending on dimensions. I paid 4.2k for the Punto's floor mat area.
Pros :
- Dust trapping capacity. Your daily shoe dirt will get trapped into the inner layers of the mat. Nothing is visible on top, so the mats have a clean appearance for a long time.
- Water/Liquid trapping capacity is good. Even fluids will get trapped in the inner layers of the mat. You can remove the individual mat piece and tilt it to eject the impurities later at your leisure. It will not spill off on its own.
- Once dust and liquids are absorbed into the mats, nothing stays on the top surface. This prevents the wet rubbery sounds that come from moist shoes.
- There is no dust on the surface, hence no dust will get into the A/C when it is in the air re-circulation mode.
- Since the mats are cut for the car's footwell dimensions, the fitting is perfect. Snug fit of the mats in the footwell area means they will not slip and slide too much with foot pressure.
- Washing the mats is simple since it is made of a kind of rubber material.
- Spongy, cushioned feel for the feet when resting them on these mats increases comfort.
Cons :
- Cosmetic value is very, very low. They look just like any other cheap quality footmats found outside home doors.
- There is no protective zone for the driver's pedal area like in 3D Kagu mats. I am guessing that portion of the Nomad mat will get worn out faster due to constant friction with the driver's shoes.
- Measurement of the mats (while cutting) needs to be inch-perfect to ensure that there is no slipping and sliding later. Please make sure of this when you get the work done at your local 3M store.
My verdict : Yes, they don't look good. Kagus look way, way better. But that's probably the only significant area where they lag behind. The strength of the Nomad mats is in practicality and ability to take dirt abuse. It will do it for as long as you want. I've put these mats through tremendous abuse - I come in with sand on my shoes, mud, slush, etc every other day when I get back from office, thanks to a long walk to the MLCP from my office block.
It holds it all for me from a Monday till the next Saturday, when all I have to do is just lift the mats, tilt and dust everything out. One day, my dog threw up in the car. These mats neatly handled it by absorbing the whole thing into the mats, which I washed and put back later. During a trip with friends, one friend spilt ~500ml of Maaza into the mats. It absorbed that too! We later just stopped on the highway somewhere, drained off the maaza from that particular mat, washed it with water and put the mat back. Best part was - no one could even tell anything was spilt there. Once the trash is taken in, you can neither see it nor smell it.
In a nutshell, practicality is fantastic, fluid/dust holding capacity is fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this to anyone looking to buy such fit-it, forget-it type mats. It would be especially useful if you travel with dogs or infants/toddlers, or if you just want low maintenance mats which you can clean at your convenience.
Other BHPians who have experiences or reviews to share on Nomad mats, please do share them on this thread
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