possibly OT: why carpet in cars?

Why? Because carpets deaden road and engine noise noticeably. "it's for selling"

I think they look nice in my 'nice' zippy little car but I much prefer painted floors for convertible and the winter car. Water holds in carpet mercilessly and rots the floors.

a lot of jeeps & pickups of today aren't being used for their intended purpose. It's all about looking good not whether it performs as it should. If I was building an off road vehicle I wouldn't put carpet in it.

That is for the "city vanity trucks". For those truck owners, it is all about "appearance". They would have a royal fit if there was one scratch in the bed of the pick-up. You will never see a bale of hay or a 2 x 4 in one of these trucks!

Trucks designated work, don't have rugs. Rugs also make the radio sound better. Vehicles hardly have enough sound control as it is with rugs.

Greg

They need to be cleaned regularly. If so they'll look good for a long time.

I thought that that was why Herculiner et. al. was invented? (shrug)

nate

I tend to wear the heel area out anyway. Of course I'm usually wearing work boots.

nate

I eventually wear that out, but otherwise the mat will still look like new.

It depends on where you live. Here in the dry climate of Phoenix I've never found carpets to be a problem even in trucks and it makes the cab significantly quieter. My sister back east always puts those heavy duty rubber weathersnubbers in her truck and she hauls all sorts of crap -- hay, horse feed, lumber, etc. She's never had a problem with the carpet as long as she uses the mats. I've had trucks with rubber mats and it is nice to be able to hose them out.

I would ask a similar question in regard to Leather upholstery. I can see absolutely no value in putting leather in a vehicle. Fabric and other materials serve the purpose far better then leather does. Yet people spend/waste thousands on leather. I think that's a far sillier use of inappropriate materials then putting carpet on the floor.

Hmmm...my truck (F250 diesel) has both carpet and leather upholstery. We use it to tow our fifth wheel. It definitely works while hauling the trailer in the mountains so I guess it's a work truck. The leather seats are very comfortable on long trips and without the carpet we'd probably be deaf.

Some people like to remove their shoes while in cars. Can't do that on cold bare metal.

I agree with the later post though: Keep the shag,

I guess we'll agree to disagree on that one... I find leather to be quite practical; Vinyl would probably be more so save for one drawback, I have "fond" memories of leaving the swimming pool in the summertime as a kid, getting into my dad's '67 Cutlass and realizing that I forgot to put a towel down on the seat when I heard the backs of my legs sizzle :)

Personally I think cloth is the most impractical upholstery as it doesn't wear well and is harder to keep clean than either leather or vinyl. My current car has leather upholstery and I really like it. The "woven" vinyl in my old pickup wasn't bad though, didn't have the same drawbacks as smooth black vinyl, but was harder to keep clean.

nate

Yup we probably won't agree. My 92 explorer has cloth and not a single defect in it, and barely any dirty spots that don't clean up. Only 21 years and 150,000 miles of wear on it. I've seen so many cars and trucks with 150K to 250K miles on them with perfect cloth upholstery that I have no qualms about using it. OTOH, my 99 GT with only 52K on it already has a small minor stain on the leather and some spots are looking worn.

Wouldn't most things that stain or wear leather more readily do so to cloth?

Meh, I had to shampoo the (admittedly light tan) cloth in my company car

- not the last one I had but the one before it - at least once or twice a year to keep it from looking like crap. Granted the car was taken to all sorts of dirty job sites. Leather OTOH maintenance consists of wiping stuff on and off, so involves less cumbersome equipment - a carpet cleaner is a lot harder to move around and use than is a couple of rags and spray bottles.

When I finally got to order a company car instead of inheriting one, I didn't have the option of leather seats, but I did get to pick the color of the cloth. I picked black. I'm not completely dumb :)

nate

It's all personal. My cloth seats stay clean, because I don't sit on them dirty. If I'm working dirty I cover the seats with a blanket before I get in. Not hard to do. I've worked nasty jobs, but could always shower at work. But some people have no good options, So I could see leather for a work vehicle. I don't like sitting in a hot or cold leather seat. Don't know about leather maintenance beyond footwear, but every leather vehicle seat with any age that I've seen has cracking/crazing to some degree, and looks like it's about to split if it hasn't already.

I've heard a heartbreaking story from a taxi driver over here about a lady who left a brown spot behind and refused to pay for drycleaning. Luckily for her her husband was more sensible and parted with cash without waiting for cops to arrive and sort this embarrassing matter out.

As for carpet, it's sooo much cheaper for a car maker to do the old skewl (read:cheap) carpet in than bother installing modern sound and vibration deadeners to the car floor. If they at least do the firewall right so that you don't have to go through all the crevices one can do the floor oneself though I admit I never went past the front doors.

What if you removed the headliner and door panels? I wouldn't understand th at.