Lloyd Ultimat Floor Mats Review for the RallyWays Miata

In looking to bring the RallyWays Miata’s interior from good to great I decided to upgrade the floor mats. I chose Lloyd Mats Ultimats for project. So, I decided to follow up with this Lloyd Ultimat floor mats review to wrap up a successful upgrade.

Floor mats are often an overlooked essential item in a car. We need them and we know they are there but we often don’t even think about them.

It used to be that floor mats were used as a bargaining chip by car dealers to help close a sale. Eventually, car buyers began expecting floor mats as part of the deal. It got to the point where car manufacturers would simply add them as standard equipment.

However, there is a problem. Actually, there are two problems.

The first problem is that many stock floor mats are simply not that great. They are there to suffice and to save the car manufacturer money. Not all of them are bad. Some are OK, but regardless, even the good ones are not top-tier quality unless we’re talking about a really high end luxury car.

The other problem is that car floor mats are in a way consumables. Right, this depends on many factors. Things like whether or not it rains a lot or snows where you live to how much you drive will affect the life span of your floor mats. Of course, the overall quality of the floor mat itself will also be a deciding factor in how long it will last.

This is where aftermarket auto floor mats come into play. Let’s say the stock floor mats you got with your new ride kinda suck. Or your car is a couple of years old and the current mats are looking worse than the “Home Sweet Home” mat laying at your front door. Or say you have a vintage car and you want to revive the interior. You guessed it… aftermarket.

First hand experience

I can honestly say all of the above have applied to me in the last couple of years. The floor mats in my NC Miata were almost as transparent as the carpet itself, though nearly not as bad – the carpet in 06-14 NC MX-5 Miatas is more like Mazda sprayed the floor pans with lint. In fact, now that I think about it, new floor mats should be one of the essential NC Miata mods after all!

Unfortunately, I sold the NC before I got around to upgrading the floor mats.

Fast forward to today and the task at hand is the RallyWays Miata – my ’95 NA Mazda MX-5. The lovely little car has a vintage tan interior doing its best 80’s Ferrari impersonation. While my little roadster has been a well-cared for car throughout its entire life, the tan mats were starting to look a little ratty. It just comes with the territory – light color. Not to mention, the spiky teeth that are supposed to hold the mats in place where all snapping off and spreading all over the carpet.

On to the Lloyd Ultimat Floor Mats Review then…

I turned to the folks at PartCatalog.com to supply the RallyWays Miata with a set of Ultimat custom floor mats by Lloyd Mats. Why? If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right.

Part Catalog carries an entire array of Lloyd Mats – around 7 or 8 different types and price points. Ultimats are next down in thickness from the top tier and highest price point Luxe Mats. There is another option that sits between the Luxe and Ultimats in price. Those are the TruBerber mats. However, they are actually slightly thinner than the Ultimat floor mats.

I chose Ultimats because they were the best floor mat for the Miata. Being able to custom tailor the mats to match my vintage Miata was a very big deal. They are considerably thicker than stock. However, the Luxe mats just seemed too thick and plush for a tiny roadster. I figured those are better suited for luxury sedans or something. Hence the name. The TruBerber mats would also be a good fit, but I wanted something a little less vintage-looking and busy.

My goals were simple. I wanted:

• New mats to improve the look and feel of my Miata’s already nice interior
• Better materials and more thickness than stock
• A matching tan color that would be ever-so-slightly darker than stock
• A perfect-fitting mat that would not move around when driving

I’m happy to say that I got all of these things with my new Ultimats. The custom floor mats fit perfectly in the foot wells. They don’t slide around thanks to the perfect fit and the super-sticky bottom rubber which Lloyd calls TractionBac Rubber. They also came with anchors to fit to the included eyelets to make sure they don’t move and accidentally block pedal access.

The mats themselves are about 9/16” thick and very plush. They smell good too. The carpet material is 2 ply cut pile – The only difference to my stock 1995 Miata carpet and floor mats which are actually loop carpet. I don’t care too much for loop carpet so these are a perfect look for me. But if you insist in the vintage look of loop carpet, then Part Catalog also has the previously mentioned TruBerber mats as well as Classic Loop Lloyd Floor Mats which are both loop carpet. The floor mats are available with upgraded binding as well. I decided to keep it simple. I quite like the binding that came with them.

Color matching custom floor mats

Nailing the color was easy and difficult at the same time. It was easy because Lloyd Ultimats are available in a huge selection of shades of tan, brown and greys as well as a couple of other specialty colors such as red. Matching the color of the tan Miata interior was easy. I found the Lloyd Ultimat color #530 G Saddle was the best match to the stock 90-97 Miata tan interior. The stock Miata floor mats are actually tad lighter than the carpet itself. The #530 G Saddle is a better match, while leaning towards the darker side.

The hard part in the choosing process was the temptation of going with a much darker color. I heavily considered the #700 Dk Brown which is a very dark chocolate brown much like Porsche 911 997 Cocoa interior. I’m a big fan of those dark chocolate browns. Plus the dark color would make keeping the floor mats clean a much easier task. I also considered plain black as it would match perfectly with the black sections of the car’s interior. In the end, I went with the saddle color for the looks – to keep it as close to stock as I could.

The downside is that I now have a pair of PUMA driving shoes permanently living in the car. I switch to those shoes when I get in and back to my Vans before getting out. Sounds like a pain, but being this is not a daily driver it’s not a big deal. Yes, quality mats like these are easier to clean, but I just don’t want to do it. Maybe in the near future I’ll get a set of black ones for driving around and keep the tan ones in the trunk to swap them in at car shows.

To top it all off, I got a tan saddle Ultimat for the trunk base. Yes, Miatas came with a grey carpet-lined trunk in all versions of the car in order to save money. But whatever, I brought some tan flavor to the grey trunk instead of conforming and going with more grey back there.

Do note that if you need to get the color just right on an eccentric project car, you can order color samples to lay against your carpet in order to choose the best match.

I’m really impressed with the quality of Ultimat floor mats and the price is more than reasonable. For this two-seater, the pair is $86.90 and the small trunk mat is $69.90. The single trunk mat for $69.90 might seem a little steep for just one mat, but when you look at the whole package at $156.80 it all makes sense. What makes it most impressive is that a pair of stock OEM mats for a Miata costs $75 – yep, only $10 less than pair of Ultimats – and the Ultimats are of much better quality than the OEM ones. It’s a no-brainer.

I decided to look up the price to fit Ultimat floor mats to my 2013 Toyota Tacoma for comparison’s sake. Since this one’s a double-cab, it uses front and rear floor mats like most average family cars. A set of OEM mats for the Tacoma costs $95. Searching on Part Catalog, a full set of Ultimat mats for my Tacoma costs $161.80. Not as much of a no-brainer as it is for a 2-seater, but I would still opt for the Ultimats because they are simply THAT much nicer.

Wrapping it up

I wouldn’t hesitate in using Ultimat floor mats in high-end builds or exotics either. In fact, since I’m such a fan of terracotta red interiors, I can’t wait ’til I can acquire a vintage Porsche 911 with red interior and fit it with a set of Ultimats.

The interior of the RallyWays Miata looks so much better now thanks to the extra class brought by my new Lloyd Ultimat floor mats from Part Catalog. Their Ultimat choices can be found here. The RallyWays Miata is a car that already garners lots of praise at every show I take it to. Now, the interior is even more impressive. Win.