Faqs, Floor and Cocoa
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Frequently Asked Questions

Coco Mats Frequently Asked Questions
Why are your Cocomats more money than the Cocomats being sold through catalogs such as Performance Products, NLA, Silver Star Outfitters and AutoSport, and online retailers such as drivingcomfort.com, roadworksauto.com, autoseattle.com, stateofnine.com, autofrills.com, bav-auto.com, worlduph.com, gprparts.com, etc... ?
2. Why would I want a set of Cocomats ?
3. Do you have the custom pattern for my car?
4. What happened to the original Cocomats?
5. What is the difference between sisal and coco?
6. What if the custom Cocomats I order do not fit?
7. Will your Cocomats shed?
8. Will your Cocomats bunch up or slide?
9. What are your Cocomats made from?
10. What if I don’t like the color I choose?
11. What is your Warranty?
12. Can I use a Universal size instead of Custom size?
Coco Mats Frequently Asked Questions
Why are your Cocomats more money than the Cocomats being sold through catalogs such as Performance Products, NLA, Silver Star Outfitters and AutoSport, and online retailers such as drivingcomfort.com, roadworksauto.com, autoseattle.com, stateofnine.com, autofrills.com, bav-auto.com, worlduph.com, gprparts.com, etc... ?

Our cocomats are more expensive than the catalog and online retailer cocomats because they are a much better product and because they cost us more to manufacture. The question that should really be asked is Are all cocomats made the same? and the answer is NO. Just like any other product, you have Companies that manufacturer to the highest standards and you have other Companies that copy the same high standard products but use lower quality materials and sell for a cheaper price. In this case, there is one Company that manufactures for all of the catalog and online retailers (catalog cocomats) and their cocomats are just not the same quality of product that we manufacturer. If you are considering purchasing a set of cocomats for your car please take the time to read below the many significant differences between the products. We currently only sell direct to the consumer and to several large Porsche and Mercedes Car dealers in the U.S. Our company also sells to many of the top Mercedes Benz and Porsche car restorers worldwide. You can also see our cocomats in many of the beautiful classic cars in the Mercedes Benz USA Museum, in Newport Beach California. We do not sell our Cocomats to any catalogs or online stores.

"Catalog Cocomats": less than 1 year Palm FibreCocomats: less than 1 year

Cocomats are made up of 4 important parts, as outlined below ( A-D): bottom, matting, heel pad and edging.

A. Bottom . Our cocomats come with an expensive 100 % natural rubber-nibbed bottom. The catalog cocomats come with a low-priced PVC (hard plastic) bottom, designed to imitate a nibbed rubber bottom; however, it is just an inferior bottom designed to look like the real thing. A two-piece front set of our cocomats weighs approximately 13 pounds. The catalog cocomats same two-piece front set weighs in at about 5 pounds. The heavy rubber-nibbed bottom on our cocomats moulds to your floor and will not move around. The catalog cocomats with the lightweight PVC bottom does not have the weight or the traction to stay in one place and will slide around while you are driving. In addition to this, if you are buying your mats for an older European classic car that has a factory rubber mat on the floor such as a 356 Porsche, 190 SL Mercedes, 230 SL Mercedes, etc.., you need to be aware that you will have a problem with the hard plastic nibs from the catalog cocomats damaging your expensive original rubber mat through either puncturing, tearing or leaving permanent indents in your factory rubber mat. Our rubber bottom will not harm you rubber mat.

B. Matting . Our coco matting is woven from coir yarn and in Eight of our dot patterns we have incorporated a sisal yarn. Coir yarn is spun from the tough fibers extracted from the outer husk of Coconuts, hence Cocomats. Coir fibers and yarn have many grades of quality, and this along with the quality of weaving determines the ultimate matting quality. We use only top grade Angenjo yarn, which is the most consistent quality, and the most expensive. The yarn must be a very hard twist or the fibers will start to come apart after a short period of time ( Click for picture # 1). We use the best available dyes and our fibers and yarn are dyed in a state-of-the-art dyeing plant. In most cases we dye the yarn but in several of our colors we actually dye the individual fibers and then spin them into yarn. This is a much more expensive technique; however the quality of the matting increases significantly. Inferior quality yarn is dyed in dye vats over wood fires yielding little or no consistency or quality. The technique used to dye the fibers and yarn determines how long the color stays in your matting. We have been sent many mats from customers that have bought the catalog cocomats and the dyes do not last, the mats fade and fall apart. (see picture below)


"Catalog Cocomat" Driver and Passenger mat, Black-Red. Less than 1 year old

Our matting is woven on automatic looms. This is a much more expensive procedure, however it is very important since it is the only way to get the weave tight and even: tight and even mats, last longer and look better. The least expensive way to weave matting is on hand looms, which is how the samples we have seen of the catalog cocomats are made. We have also seen samples of the catalog cocomats that have used dyed coir yarn versus sisal yarn, in their dot matting. The original dot colors were developed in Germany during the 60s and made available in Porsche, Mercedes and Volkswagen cars. The dot was always made from a sisal yarn. Sisal is a more expensive yarn and is the right look and quality for this dot matting, not dyed coir yarn, which is much cheaper and creates an inferior mat.

C. Heel pad . Our mats use an expensive rubber heel pad that is pressed and hot glued into the matting, and then double sewn, in order to lay flush with the top of the mat after installed. This makes it so that your feet will not catch on the heel pad and so that the heel pad is always flat and rigid. The catalog cocomats use a cheap plastic heel pad that is single stitch sewn onto the top of the mat. The differences are very important: The plastic heel pad not only cheapens the look of the mat, but the plastic heel pads are very dangerous when you get water on them, because water on a plastic heel pad will cause your feet to slip while you are driving. The catalog cocomats plastic heel pads will also buckle up after time and with no support underneath will cause problems while driving ( see picture below-"Catalog Cocomat" plastic heel pad ). The single stitch holding on the plastic heel pad also could very easily come loose with normal wear and start to come off causing a dangerous situation. Our rubber heel pads were designed to not only look good and compliment the natural fiber matting, but our rubber heel pads will help to keep your foot in place, even if water is present and will never come loose. ( see below Palm Fibre Rubber heel pad )


"Catalog Cocomat" plastic heel pad


Palm Fibre Cocomats Pressed Rubber Heel Pad

D. Edging . We use a very tough and expensive vinyl edging in colors that compliment our matting colors. The floor mat of a car gets a lot of abuse, so we sourced a vinyl that looks like leather, but is tough enough to stand up to the floor of a car. Our edging will never crack, tear or rip. The catalog cocomats use a very cheap and weak vinyl edging that will tear and crack in a short period of time ( see picture below ). We sew our vinyl edge down with a very tough 277 Nylon thread, which will never break. The catalog cocomats use an inferior 68 size thread to hold their vinyl down, which is weak and susceptible to coming apart very easily.


"Catalog Cocomat" Torn vinyl edging.

Manufacturing and quality . Our quality control is very high and a set of mats will not leave our factory unless it meets our tough standards. All of our heel pads are straight, vinyl edging is correct and all matting material is aligned correctly on our cocomats. Every mat goes through a quality check at each of our production steps, as well as before shipping out. We double stitch the first stitch of the mats, that holds down the fibers prior to sewing on the vinyl edging. This is very important so that coir yarn does not come loose later on and the mat start to fall apart. We also double stitch our heel pads with a heavy duty 138 nylon thread after they are pressed and glued in, so that they will never come loose. Every set of our cocomats is treated (twice) with an expensive product from 303 Products called High Tech Fabric guard. This material was developed for and is used on boat sails, building awnings and convertible tops and covers. After a lot of testing, we have found that this product protects and seals the coco matting even further from spills and dirt, and so every one of our mats are treated (twice) with 303 fabric guard.

We have seen catalog cocomats with matting not aligned on bottom of mat ( see below ), crooked heel pads (single stitched) and with poorly sewn vinyl edging. Just not up to the standard that our customer comes to expect.


"Catalog Cocomats" Crooked matting.

Our Company has built its reputation on providing a top quality product for a fair price. A speech given a few years ago by Mr. Peter Schwarzenbauer, then President of Porsche North America, where he quoted John Ruskin, a 19th century British economist, sums it all up quite nicely: There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this mans lawful prey. It is not wise to pay too much, but it is even worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you will loose a little money, but thats it. But when you pay too little, you can sometimes loose everything because the purchased article can not fulfill the purpose it was meant for.

Our customer care department is always available to answer any questions on our quality or anything about our mats. We are also happy to send out swatches of our Cocomats for review, prior to any purchase.

2. Why would I want a set of Cocomats ?

When looking at the difference between Palm Fibre Cocomats and regular auto floor mats, there are many great benefits that our improved Cocomats offer. 1.) One of the best benefits is that they hide dirt that is tracked into your car. Our Cocomats are woven verses pile like a regular carpeted mat. If you look onto the floor in any car with a carpet or rubber floor mat, you will notice little pebbles, dirt, etc.. sitting on top. With Cocomats, this filters through the mat and gets trapped at the rubber bottom. Every couple of weeks you just need to take out your mats and shake them out and all of the dirt comes out. 2.) Our Cocomats do not move or slide around. Most factory and aftermarket floor mats will slide around and bunch up at the accelerator pedal. This is due to the fact that most mats are light and flimsy and do not have the weight or the rubber nibbed bottom that our Cocomats have. Our new Cocomats won't slide around or bunch up at the accelerator pedal, because we have adhered our top coco matting to a 1/8” natural rubber, nibbed bottom, which is heavy (approx. 13 lbs. For a 2 pce set). 3.) Our Cocomats have a great and unique look to them. As they are woven, it adds to the beauty of the mat. They are also a natural fiber so it softens the look in your car. We offer 18 color combinations, which will compliment almost any vehicle interior.

There are many more benefits that you would discover if you talked to one of our customers, or you enjoyed them in your vehicle for yourself.

3. Do you have the custom pattern for my car?
We have the patterns for almost every European Car, including every Porsche, Mercedes and BMW pattern. We also have most American and Japanese cars, trucks, SUV’s and Vans. If there is a pattern we do not have, we will try and locate the pattern and if we cannot locate a car to make the pattern then we will contact you and ask if you would like us to send out brown craft paper along with simple instructions, and a return stamped envelope, so that you can make us a pattern.
4. What happened to the original Cocomats?
The original idea behind Cocomats, was that they were used in cars before carpet, when there was only rubber on the floor. The coco material acted as a kind of carpet but with the benefit that it allowed dirt and sand to filter through the coco material, so you did not see it on the top of the rubber floor matting. Porsche, VW, Mercedes, BMW, Triumph and many other European cars were like this. Cocomats were a big hit back in the 60’s and 70’s, even after carpet was introduced. As far as we have been able to determine, there were two main U.S. Companies and One Company in Germany supplying Cocomats during the 60’s and 70’s, when they were popular. The Cocomats during this period did not include any rubber backing and their quality depended upon which manufacturer you bought them from. Cocomats were sold through New and used Car dealers, Accessory shops, Catalogs, etc… We have also seen many Porsche and Mercedes original sales stickers that included Cocomats from the factory. These were the highest quality and came from the German manufacturer. One of the U.S. Manufacturers was in Southern California and one was in Illinois, which later was sold and moved to Georgia. The German Company mostly supplied to the auto manufacturers and new car dealers and when they (auto manufacturers) stopped buying they did not manufacturer the Cocomats any longer. From what we have been able to put together from customers and other suppliers, the Company in Southern California went out of business do to some family problems and the Company in Illinois, which was later bought and moved to GA just kind of phased out of Cocomats as there many other product lines were growing. During this period and up to this day, all of the material for Cocomats originated in Southern India.
5. What is the difference between sisal and coco?
Many people interchange these two words. In actuality they are two different materials and offer two distinct looks and feel. Coco fibers come from the husks of coconuts and sisal fibers comes from the leaves of a cactus plant called Agave Sisalana. Coco matting uses a larger and harder yarn than sisal matting and is available in a herringbone and a dot or basket weave. Sisal matting is available in a small boucle weave and has a little more refined look to it. Both coco and sisal matting are excellent choices for a luxury auto floor mat, and each offer a distinct look and feel. We currently offer handcrafted automobile floor mats in both coco and sisal natural fibers, and some of our matting has a combination of both. All of our mats come with a natural rubber nibbed bottom, to firmly hold our mats in place.
6. What if the custom Cocomats I order do not fit?
We guarantee the fit and quality of every set of custom Cocomats we manufacturer. If there is a problem with the fit, you just need to contact us via telephone, fax or e-mail and we will rectify the problem.
7. Will your Cocomats shed?
NO! Our Cocomats are made from specially selected yarn from Southern India. We only use a very hard twisted yarn that has been spun to our stringent specifications. This along with the fact that we adhere a rubber bottom to our mats stops any shedding of the fibers!
8. Will your Cocomats bunch up or slide?
NO! We adhere our coco matting material to a 1/8” natural rubber-nibbed bottom. This keeps the mats from sliding and from bunching up.
9. What are your Cocomats made from?
Coco matting material is made from the husks of Coconuts. We also use sisal in some of our mats. The bottom is from natural rubber, Our heel pads are rubber and the edging on the sides are a very tough color coordinated vinyl. Click here for more details.
10. What if I don’t like the color I choose?
As all of our mats are hand made to order, we do not accept returns if a customer does not like the color or if it does not match his / her interior. We are happy to send out swatches of colors that could work in your cars interior, at no charge. These are for you to review and lay into your car before making your purchase, but once a set of mats are ordered and manufactured, we cannot accept returns for color.
11. What is your Warranty?
We guarantee our Cocomats to be free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of 1 year; however, if you have a problem beyond a year, please contact us so that we can try and rectify the problem, because under normal use, your Cocomats should last in your car for many years, and we want you to be happy.
12. Can I use a Universal size instead of Custom size?
Universal mats are made in one-size fits all and come in 2 piece front sets only. No rear sets are available in universal sizes; however, you can order custom rears. It is the same material that we use for our custom Cocomats, except that the Universal Cocomat sets are made 100% in India for us. They fit best in cars, trucks, SUV’s and Vans that have the accelerator pedal coming down from the top. They should not be used in Cars, Trucks or SUV’s that have the accelerator pivoting on the floor, as this can cause a safety issue with the pedal. This would include: Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Alfa Romeo, VW, and many other make and models. We have three (3)colors available in the Universal size ( see Universal page ) and they are shaped like an hour glass. They are approximately 16 ½” wide at the base, 14 ½” at the top and 27” long. The driver mat has a pressed heel pad in it.


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