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If you like the outdoors, you’re bound to get dirty. And if you’re like most of us, that means you usually use a vehicle to get to and from the outdoors. All the dirt, mud, water, and other debris that collects on your shoes almost always makes its way into your vehicle for the drive home.
Sure, you could continue using the factory floor mats that came with your vehicle but aftermarket floor mats are one of the easiest modifications that any outdoors person will love. Whether you’re skiing in the snow, camping in the rain, biking in mud, or hiking in the dirt, these floor mats are top-notch for protecting your car or truck from the elements.
In this guide, we cover universal-fit car floor mats that can fit a wide range of vehicles and vehicle-specific mats custom-shaped to fit footwells by year, make, and model. Both have advantages and disadvantages depending on their price point and coverage. Since price varies across vehicles, all prices reflect a 2017 Toyota Tacoma with first and second row mats.
We scoured the internet to find the top floor mats available and put them to the test during a few weeks of peak spring snowmelt in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. All in search of the best car floor mats for any outdoor lover. To learn more about the details of car floor mats and a more in-depth analysis of how these materials can vary, be sure to check out our comprehensive buying guide, FAQ, and comparison chart below.
Otherwise, scroll through to see all of our recommended car floor mats for 2024.
If you’re looking for the ultimate protection for your rig, then look no further than the WeatherTech FloorLiner ($202). These laser-measured, custom-fit floor mats are sure to cover every inch of your foot wells, leaving no nook or cranny unprotected.
Made from a high-density core, thermoplastic elastomer, that is essentially odorless, contains no harmful chemicals, and is even 100% recyclable. In short, you can say the FloorLiner is a strong and durable, rigid plastic liner that can handle whatever the elements throw at your feet. And did we mention you can choose from three different colors — black, gray, or tan — to complement your interior?
While all the mats in our guide offer some form of deep wells, the FloorLiners are the deepest with the mats protecting the front, back, and sides of the footwell. No matter the mess on the outside of our test truck, or on our boots, nothing could get past the liners and onto our vehicle’s carpet. The surface of the mats created grip for our shoes and also helped channel fluids toward the door at the same time preventing sloshing while driving.
Unfortunately, if your vehicle is older than 2005, even though it’s probably pretty cool, you won’t be able to get a set of mats that fit. While these mats are the highest-priced option we tested, we feel they offer the best fitment, quality, protection, and durability. The high costs come from a made-in-America product, impeccable instructions and support, and a lifetime warranty. In some cases, you get what you pay for and we think the WeatherTech FloorLiners are really worth breaking the bank.
The Motor Trend Flex Tough Floor Mats ($38) are a bargain for an easy upgrade to your car’s factory floor mats. Made from a thick, heavy, flexible rubber, available in multiple colors, and with a universal fit for most vehicles, these mats are a great affordable option.
This trim-to-fit option is great for affordable mats or if custom-fit liners aren’t available for your vehicle. Larger trucks and SUVs most likely won’t need any trimming, but smaller cars can follow pre-made trim lines to get a more snug fit.
While these are an affordable option they do come with some drawbacks. First, they don’t grip the floor very well in larger vehicles and can slide around. The second-row floor mat is sized for a small car and won’t provide good coverage or fitment in larger SUVs and trucks. They don’t channel water and debris toward the door, which means it’s easy to spill when you’re taking them out to clean. Lastly, they aren’t as durable as some harder plastic alternatives.
Our lead tester purchased a used hunting truck with these floor mats installed, and after a year of hard use, they had worn through in two spots on the driver’s mat. These mats do show wear faster than the competitors, but at less than one-quarter of the price of the WeatherTechs, they are still a cheaper option even for up to four sets. Overall, the Motor Trend Flex Tough Floor Mats are a good option for aftermarket protection at an affordable price point.
Rugged and durable, the Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners ($170) live up to their name. These vehicle-specific mats are laser-measured, rigid plastic trays that completely line both the footwell and the door jams for superior protection.
Their marketing materials boast “Go ahead, open up a can of lemon whoop-ass on the thing, it can take it.” Our testers did just that with all the snow, slush, and mud a mountain town in spring squeezes out. The husky liners contained the entire mess and funneled it back out the doors.
Without a doubt, these car floor mats are among the most stalwart — without adding bulk or grams — meaning, there isn’t any wiggle room once they’re smeared against the carpet. There’s no way molecules of dirt are squeezing under there.
The tradeoff? Don’t get your fingertips stuck between the mats and rigid fixtures of your rig. We did, and it didn’t feel good. With evenly spaced cactus-like stubs as cleats, these stout mats don’t budge a fraction of a millimeter once they’re set. That’s the good of the design. We also frowned a bit every time we wanted to take out the mats for a wash and full interior vacuum.
It’s worth noting that you will always need to vacuum up the 2nd row when you remove this mat because it’s a single piece and the only way to slide it out is to tip it vertically. Down, down, down the pebbles slide. A deep well circles the two lock-in points on the driver’s side mat, which is helpful for keeping the knob secured but small pebbles get in there, too.
So you might need a narrow item, like a screwdriver, to pop out small rocks in order to twist the locks open. We didn’t have a floor lock on our front passenger side but there’s a hole ready for one.
Ultimately, it’s tough beating the Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners, a stiff and lightweight mat with supreme coverage and a premium build. Despite the sharp undercarriage and our high cleaning tendencies, we won’t be swapping these puppies out soon.
As an easily trimmable design, the Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats ($45) are the best option for a universal fitment mat for any vehicle. The mats start extra wide and large to fit most trucks, vans, and SUVs and come with a plethora of pre-made trim lines, so you can also custom-fit these mats down to the smallest cars.
The second-row floor mats start significantly larger than the Motor Trend mats and offer trimmable edges and two cut lines so you can turn them from one piece into three pieces. This provided better overall coverage and fitment in a variety of vehicles. It also provided the ability to remove and dump debris from each side independently, making it significantly easier to avoid making a mess trying to get the entire rear tray out as one piece.
Both the drivers’ and passengers’ floor mats come with Armor All Grip Claws — a small flower-shaped anti-skid cleat with two sharp, uniquely shaped tread designs for gripping power. Two per mat help lock down the front mats, preventing them from sliding around and locking them into position with extra security, in addition to the rows of points along the mat’s base.
Raised ridges around the footwells of all three pieces are relatively short, meaning they don’t contain liquids well and it’s easy to spill a bit when attempting to dump the mats for cleaning. Additionally, as a trimmable design, the true footwell pockets on the inside of the trim lines are relatively small compared to the other alternatives we tested. Despite its flaws, the Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats are a great affordable option that will fit the most vehicles of any we tested.
With a small vacation for the pocketbook, the Rough Country Floor Mats ($140) are the most affordable custom-fit floor mats we tested. Rough Country is known throughout the truck market for its affordable aftermarket products, and these floor mats are no different.
Made from an eco-friendly, rigid plastic that has enough flexibility to keep its form-fitting shape, these mats are a great upgrade compared to stock. Compared to the WeatherTech mats, they are slightly heavier and thicker material and provide similar coverage.
Specifically made for trucks, these heavy-duty mats do a great job of catching all of the elements while protecting your truck’s carpet, no matter what kind of outdoor activities you engage in. Textured surfaces grip the bottom of your shoes, while door jam coverage provides the ultimate protection against spills.
Through testing, we found the fitment to be not quite perfect, and the edges of the mats wanted to curl upward, away from the carpet, leaving gaps on each mat. The instructions didn’t include how to trim the mat for a subwoofer, and trial and error found that scissors wouldn’t cut it — a box cutter worked like butter. Installing the mats even though they were flexible, getting them to fit perfectly took a few tries and a bit of fighting with the rubber.
Additionally, safely dumping the second-row mat for cleaning was nearly impossible without spills, trying to lift the large one-piece mat over the back seats and through the door. Overall, the Rough Country Floor Mats are a great option for any truck lover looking for an affordable set of heavy-duty, custom-fit floor armor.
Scroll right to view all of the columns: Price, Fitment, Rigidity, Door Jamb / Side Protection, Warranty.
The good people of GearJunkie don’t mind getting messy outside. And our goal was to do just that, and then climb into our vehicles and see how big of a catastrophe we could make.
Lead tester Eric Phillips has been an outdoor professional for the last 10 years along with being an extreme automotive enthusiast. At age 18, he built a truck from the ground up alongside his dad and, while living in Chicago, raced cars. Not one to take a vehicle to a mechanic, Phillips picks up a wrench to complete the maintenance and upgrades his own rigs.
He spends ample time exploring far-out locations as a hunter, splitboarder, and landscape photographer — and then brings that dirt back to his vehicles, from working search and rescue to living full-time at 9,000 feet in Colorado. He’s used aftermarket floor mats in all the vehicles he has ever owned.
This team tested custom-fit and universal-fit floor mats from late winter into spring, or what’s known as “Mud Season,” in the mountain town of Crested Butte, Colo. Almost all the parking spots, including our own, turn to a snowy, muddy mess as the spring sun starts the months-long process of melting winter’s snowpack.
For this guide, the vehicles included a 2017 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab and a 2014 Ford F-150 Raptor, both of which were used for many muddy adventures. Both were parked on unpaved parking spots that were rarely solid, even, or dry.
Throughout our field tests and personal experience, we determined the best car floor mats based on a variety of metrics including fitment, coverage, durability, ease of cleaning, color, floor grip, foot traction, installation ease, and quality.
Beyond our tests, we also considered the most popular, award-worthy, universal, sustainable, and affordable designs. These car floor mats serve a range of vehicles, styles, and budgets.
Although seemingly simple, an array of details makes car floor mats unique. Take 15 minutes to do your homework before clicking the buy button.
You can choose two main tiers of aftermarket car floor mats for your vehicle — universal fit, also known as trim-to-fit floor mats and custom fit floor mats.
Universal fit floor mats like the Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats are often two to three times cheaper and can be tailored to fit almost any vehicle. For older or less popular vehicles, it can be hard to find custom-fit floor mats leaving your only option as universal fit.
These are usually a more flexible, softer rubber that bends and folds around your car’s existing footwell shapes. They will either fit your vehicle as is or come with trimmable shapes for easy removal of access material to fit smaller footwells.
This type is generally easier to install minus the trimming. But the flexible rubber does not hold liquids or dirt as well and it can be easier to spill when removing your mats for cleaning. Additionally, universal fitment floor mats won’t fit perfectly or cover the entirety of your footwells compared to custom fit mats. They can still let elements like mud, water, and rocks onto your carpet but generally are better than the factory option.
Custom-fit mats on the other hand, like the Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners, offer superior coverage, fitment, and protection for your vehicle’s footwells. These mats are laser-measured and engineered to fit the unique shape of your footwells perfectly.
These often can have much taller sides and deeper wells for containing more debris, are engineered to funnel water toward the door, and even cover the door jam to prevent any elements from getting under the mat and onto your carpet.
The primary downside to custom floor liners is that they are typically considerably more expensive. Additionally, they are only available for certain makes and models of popular vehicles. You can only get these types if your vehicle is listed as compatible. Since these mats are vehicle-specific, they will not work in any other vehicle than the one they are manufactured to fit.
Car floor mats are made from heavy-duty plastic and rubber materials. Higher-end custom floor mats offer more environmentally friendly, heavy-duty plastics like the WeatherTech FloorLiner, which is made from a Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE). It’s essentially odorless, contains no harmful PVCs, phthalate, BPA, cadmium, or lead, and is 100% recyclable.
These are usually a more rigid material that holds its shape or form so it can fit perfectly around all the curves and corners of your footwell. These types use lightweight and thinner materials compared to universal floor mats.
Universal floor mats are made from a heavy-duty rubber compound. These don’t have as high of standards as custom floor mats and are mass-produced, meaning they aren’t environmentally friendly. These mats include the Motor Trend Flex Tough Floor Mats, which are heavier, thicker, and much more flexible. The flexible material is meant to bend over humps and bumps.
While it’s more fun to go on adventures and pick up grime, there eventually comes a time to wash your vehicle and clean out your footwells. Each of the mats in this guide is meant to be easily removed from your car, dumped out, and cleaned with water or an additional cleaner.
Our top two floor mats, the WeatherTech FloorLiner and the Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners are cleaned very easily at the car wash without soap. Alternatively, the Rough Country Floor Mats, Motor Trend FlexTough Floor Mats, and Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats car floor mats all seemed to stain more easily. They also required a more thorough cleaning with soap to return them to their original look.
We found the larger custom-fit liners to be harder to remove from the footwells, due to their larger more rigid shape — which meant we were less inclined to clean them. This especially applied to the second-row mat, as it was usually bulkier and harder to remove without making a mess since both passenger sides were connected as a broad single piece.
There are two types of traction when talking about vehicle floor mats — the traction between the carpet and the floor mat, keeping the mats secure — and the traction on top of the floor mats for your shoes to grip while driving or getting in and out of the vehicle. We tested each floor mat’s grip in both aspects.
Floor mats like the Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats — which came with two Grip Claws per mat — and WeatherTech FloorLiner with TechGrip both held in place significantly better than their counterparts. The Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners stood out in this category with its large grip spikes on the underside of each mat.
In terms of shoe grip and traction, the best performers were the WeatherTech FloorLiner followed by Rough Country Floor Mats, the Husky Liners Weatherbeater Floor Liners, then the Motor Trend FlexTough Floor Mats, and closing out with the Armor All Weather Defender Floor Mats. The top performers here had groves and channels in the floor mats. Those components not only held our shoe soles but also kept liquids from sloshing around while driving and helped funnel liquid to “reservoirs” where it could be easily dumped later on.
While most dirt and mud settle on the bottom of your vehicle’s footwells, the sides and door jams are equally important for catching debris and keeping your carpet clean. Coverage of these areas was an important differentiation between universal fit and custom fit floor mats.
The sides of a car mat are technically the front, back, and sides of the mat that rise vertically from the bottom creating a deep well to catch and hold the elements. The WeatherTech FloorLiner mats had the deepest sides of the models we tested. This matters because it can hold a higher volume of liquid and dirt both inside the footwell and during removal, to avoid spilling into your carpet.
Door jam refers to the flat section of the floor at the bottom of your vehicle’s door. Each door has its own door jam. This is a common spot your foot uses when getting in or out of your vehicle. Hence, it can get really dirty and collect a lot of grime.
Coverage of this area helps catch a considerable amount of elements into your floor mat tray. It also helps keep spills contained when removing the mats for cleaning, the door jam coverage drops lower than the side acting as a funnel from the bottom of the mat up and over the door jam to the outside when its tilted.
No. Aftermarket floor mats are designed to replace your factory floor mats and will not work in conjunction. Make sure to remove your original floor mats before installing any of the aftermarket floor mats from this guide.
There are a few ways to clean your floor mats from at-home options to car washes. The easiest way is to detach any hooks or attachment points from your floor mats to your carpet, then, to avoid spilling, carefully lift it out of your vehicle and dump it on the ground. A few shakes will get rid of most debris before reinstalling.
Want to get rid of the stains and mud? You can use your garden hose and spigot to rinse off the floor mats at home or even use a recommended cleaning product for those hard-to-remove stains. Lastly, our favorite way of washing them is using a self-spray car wash.
Most self-spray washes have wall clamps that will hold your floor mats and you can spray them down with a pressure washer. Just remember to vacuum or clean any dirt from your carpet before reinstalling your freshly cleaned floor mats.
The short answer is no, you don’t have to trim the mats, and often using a universal mat in a truck or large SUV requires no trimming. In other cases with custom-fit floor mats, some cutouts may have to be removed to fit over subwoofers and speakers.
Universal fit floor mats come with pre-marked trim lines so you can easily remove sections of the floor mat for a precise fit into smaller vehicles or to separate the mat to center more easily in the footwells. While scissors work, we found that a box cutter was the tool of choice for trimming rubber floor mats.
The second row refers to the row of seats directly behind the front or first row of seating. In contrast, the first row is where the driver’s seat and passenger seat are located directly in front of the windshield. Each floor mat tested in our guide came with second-row mats, which were tested along with the front-row mats. Some single-cab trucks or vans won’t need second-row mats.
One of the top reasons to use aftermarket car floor mats is to preserve your vehicle’s carpet for years to come. Clean and pristine footwells can add to a vehicle’s resale value and protect it from the elements. Sometimes, aftermarket floor mats add a new look or color to your vehicle’s footwells, making it stand out more than factory vehicles.
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Eric Phillips is a contributor of GearJunkie. He has been writing about snowboarding, splitboarding, and winter apparel for one year and photographing content for many. Phillips has worked on the Western Mountain Rescue Team and as a professional adventure photographer in the outdoor industry. Based in Crested Butte, Colorado, he’s an avid board sports enthusiast, mountain biker, hunter, hiker, camper, and mountaineer.
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