"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 that's 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." John Ruskin, (19th century British economist) as quoted by Mr. Peter Schwarzenbauer, then President of Porsche North America.

Cocomats.com re-introduced the classic cocomat car floor mat in 1996 and updated this mat to include a natural nibbed rubber back, a signature rubber heel pad, leather like vinyl edging and top quality coco and sisal matting. We have strived to manufacturer and sell only the finest Coco and sisal mats using the highest quality materials available. After several years of selling our new and updated Cocomats, a company produced a "knock-off" of our mats and they began selling their cocomats through automotive catalogs and online retailers using pictures and write ups designed to give the impression that they are either our mats or of the same quality as ours. We have received many heartfelt and concerned calls and e-mails asking us if we had changed our mats, if we were selling these "other" lesser quality Cocomats to catalogs and or what was up ? Henceforth, we have decided to add this page to our website in an effort to clarify the differences between our mats and the "knockoffs" to enable you to make an educated decision about your purchase.

Cocomat floor mats are made up of 4 important parts, as outlined below:

A. Bottom ( Nibbed Rubber backing ) . Our cocomats come with a nibbed rubber bottom. Catalog cocomats come with PVC (hard plastic) backing, designed as an inferior imitation of a nibbed rubber bottom. A two-piece front set of our cocomats weighs approximately 13 pounds. The same two-piece front set of the catalog cocomats weighs approximately 5 pounds. The heavy nibbed rubber bottom on our cocomats moulds to your floor and will not move around. The catalog cocomats, employing the lightweight PVC bottom, does not have the weight or the traction to stay in one place and has the potential to slide around while you are driving. We also incorporate grommets into our mats where applicable, like some original factory mats, for added safety. In addition to this, if you are buying your mats for an older European classic car that comes with 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. Coco and Sisal fiber matting: All coco matting is woven from coir yarn. Coir yarn is spun using the tough fibers extracted from the outer husk of Coconuts, hence Cocomats. Coir fibers and yarn have many grades of quality. It is this grade of yarn, along with the quality of weaving and dyes that determines the ultimate finished product. We use only top grade Angenjo yarn, which has the most consistent quality and highest cost. The yarn must be a very hard twist or the fibers will start to fray after only a short period of time. Our factory uses only the finest dyes to produce our vibrant colors in our state-of-the-art facility in Alappuzha India. Keep in mind that all natural fibers will fade over time; however at cocomats.com we use the best available materials and innovative technology to help to limit this. All of our matting is woven on semi-automatic looms creating a tighter weave and producing a longer lasting quality mat.

"If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" James Goldsmith

Below are pictures of "Catalog Cocomats" that were sent to us by customers, who had purchased these mats and then either after one year or upon the recipt of the mats, as in the case of the BMW M5 mats, decided to invest in our mats instead.

"Catalog Cocomats" Examples Black Red - Mini Cooper mats One year old.

"Catalog Cocomats" example Black Porsche Boxster driver mat one year old

"Catalog Cocomat" example BMW M5 New.

C. Heel pad. Our mats use a signature rubber heel pad on the driver mat that is pressed, and hot glued into the matting, then double stitched in order to lay flush with the top of the mat. Using this technique ensures that your feet will not catch on the heel pad and the mat will remain flat and rigid. Catalog cocomats use an inexpensive plastic heel pad that is single stitched onto the driver mat. The differences in the heel pad are very important: plastic not only cheapens the look of the mat in your car, but it is dangerous when wet, as your feet may slip when driving. The catalog cocomats plastic heel pads will also buckle up after time with no support underneath, and this also has the potential to cause problems while driving. Our rubber heel pads were not only designed to look good and to compliment the natural fiber matting in color and quality, but they are functional. They will help to keep your feet in place, even if water is present, and will never come loose from your mat.

"Catalog Cocomat" plastic heel pad

Cocomats.com Rubber Heel Pad

Cocomats.com rubber heel pad, 1/4" thick. "Catalog Cocomats" plastic heel pads, 1/16" thick.

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get" Warren Buffet

D. Vinyl Edging. We use very tough and high quality leather like vinyl edging in complementary colors to enhance and protect the sides of your cocomats. The floor mat of a car gets a lot of abuse, so we spent a great deal of time and effort sourcing a vinyl that looks like leather, but is tough enough to stand up to the floor of a car. The catalog cocomats use a lesser quality " off the shelf " vinyl edging that has the potential to tear and crack in a short period of time. We sew our vinyl edge down with a very tough 277 Nylon thread, which will never break. The catalog cocomats use a 68 size thread to hold their vinyl down, which is weak and susceptible to coming apart.

"Catalog Cocomat" Torn vinyl edging.

Manufacturing and quality: We are proud of every mat we make. Our quality control is very high and a set of our mats will not leave our shop unless it meets our tough standards. All of our heel pads are straight, vinyl edging is correct and all matting material is aligned correctly. Every mat goes through a quality check at each of our production steps, as well as before shipping out. All of our mats are double stitched around the mat in order to tightly hold 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 mats start to unravel. 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 with High Tech Fabric Guard from 303 Products. 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 adds additional protection from potential spills, dirt and fading.

In Closing: Every day at Cocomats we send out samples of our product, including vinyl, to customers who would like to compare colors and see for themselves the quality of our all natural car floor mats. We do this at no additional cost and have found that the product speaks for itself. We hope that if you have any questions or doubts about our mats or catalog cocomats, that you order samples of the actual materials prior to buying, so that you can make sure you are getting what you think you are paying for.

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking" Henry Ford