Driver's side floor mat hooks

I just did a search on "floor mats" and got 17 pages of hits, so pardon me if I don't investigate them all. I don't recall seeing any discussion of the abominable hooks used to secure the floor mats on the driver's side. Every time I get my car washed they unhook the mat to vacuum, which is easy. But they never put the mat back right, which is hard. Those stupid hooks swivel around so easily they almost never line up correctly for the holes in the mat. They should just have a standard system, with two prongs sticking straight up like on the passenger side and on every other car I know of with removable mats. I have to assume that they have these formidable talons for legal/marketing reasons, to make sure the mat cannot scoot forward and wedge under the pedals like the Toyota nightmare, but it's a really, really lousy system. It takes me at least five minutes of squatting, stooping and bending every time to get that damn mat back on, and it doesn't even achieve the purpose of avoiding the wedgies, because the carwash always just lays the mat on top of the hooks, so if I didn't notice or didn't take the time to fix it, the mat could be thrown forward during a sudden stop.

My 1999 Lexus has the same trouble! So now I have 2 cars that I hate to remove the mats from!

Thank the lawyers!

LindaK said:

My 1999 Lexus has the same trouble! So now I have 2 cars that I hate to remove the mats from!

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I have no problem with them. Actually more of a fiddle to get them out. Putting them back...the secret is to get the hooks in the mat before you sit it down on the floor.

My BMW had the best scheme with flush thumb locks that turned a quarter turn to release and engage. Very easy and very secure.

LindaK said:

My 1999 Lexus has the same trouble! So now I have 2 cars that I hate to remove the mats from!

Click to expand...

mwalsh said:

I have no problem with them. Actually more of a fiddle to get them out. Putting them back...the secret is to get the hooks in the mat before you sit it down on the floor.

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Yep. The bottom of the mat grabs the "carpet" pretty hard and I find it impossible to scoot the mat around after letting it rest on the floor. But if you hook it first, then lay the mat down, it goes smoothly enough.

Why take the mats out to begin with?

harryjpowell said:

Why take the mats out to begin with?

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The car wash folks do it automatically in order to vacuum, then they don't put it back. I understand that one is supposed to hook the mat first before laying it flat. The problem is that it is very difficult to do that because the hooks won't stay the right distance apart. They keep swiveling left or right so that the hooks are a different distance apart than the holes in the mat are and one hook points forward while the other points backward. You can say that all you have to do is move them back the right positions, but as soon as the mat touches one of them, it gets knocked sideways again. Unless you have four hands you can't do both hooks at the same time. The car wash people are unable to do it, either, so I know it's not just me being a klutz (although that may be part of it).