[Jeffcharger]

Top Design provided me with a sample of their proposed new floor mats for the F10. Here are my thoughts after about 2 days with them...


Material and Workmanship
- Overall, the quality of the material appears to be high. The material, stitching, binding and backing all appear to be of high quality.
- The pile quality – seems more polyester that OEM ones, which seem more wool-like. The pile height is about the same. The OEM mats feel better when you dig your fingers into them. This is a very subjective statement. If I didn’t compare them side-by-side I wouldn’t have noticed any difference.
- The binding and stitching quality looks very good. I like the double stitching. Since my interior carpet is dark, I would prefer either the M-coloring or dark stitching instead of the white stitching on the sample carpet. The white stands out too much (I recognize that this is personal preference).
- With respect to the backing/velcro attachment –they have the same cirles of Velcro that aligns with the car’s attachments on the floor. The OEM mats have multiple ribs that run across the bottom providing grip. The Top Design ones have the “hairy” bottom throughout for grip. I’ve never had a problem with the OEM ones “walking” and recognize that many 3rd party mats now use the “hairy” design. It appears to be very stable. A bit of time will tell if the Top Design ones are any different.
- It was a cool day (about 6 C/43 F) when installed. Stiffer than OEM, and as a result, less flexible. This only presented a possible problem with the fit of the driver’s side. I will see if it conforms more to the floor’s contour in a day or so with some heat.

Style
- The binding color provides a good match to the carpet.
- The mat color blends well with my interior color being dark. I like it.
- Many 3rd party carpet mats have a heal pad on the driver’s side, which I don’t like. The Top Design mats do not. I like this. They may not wear as well, but I prefer the look without the rubber pad under my heel.
- Personally, I’m not a fan of the logo. The initial pictures provided showed the M-performance logo on the 2 front mats. The sample provided has the Top Design logo. Since I don’t know Top Design, it doesn’t add anything to the look in my car. I would prefer the M-performance logo, but recognize that this is may be a copyright issue for the vendor. I would prefer no logo at all instead of the Top Design one. Regardless, I think the logo stip should be narrower. Another aspect that my wife noticed is the coloring of the logo. It isn’t the same coloring as the M logo (which is the standard “light blue/dark blue/red”, but is “light blue/white/red”. If they aren’t able to provide the true M-performance logo, then it would be better to follow the standard coloring and sequence to be consistent. The logo location on the mat is close to the door sill so the mismatch is quite apparent.

Fit
- The front driver side floormat is too wide at the rear to properly fit. The tail of it climbs up the transmission hump at the point it goes under the seat. It almost causes a problem with the gas pedal, but not quite. The fit may improve when the mat softens once it’s been in the car a while and when some heat is applied. The front passenger side fits very well, as do the rears, which are a bit deeper under the seats. I believe that all of the mats are slightly larger than the OEM mats. This is nice, except for the problem created on the driver’s side. This one does require some manufacturing adjustment.
- The rear “bump” cover is actually a nice touch. I thought that it might not follow the contour of the bump, but it does so nicely. I can see this being a nice addition if you have rear seat passengers, and certainly in inclement weather climates.

Durability and Cleaning.
- It’s too early to give any indication of the durability, resiliency and ease of cleaning, but my impression is that they would be similar, or slightly better than, the OEM mats. This impression is based solely on the materials used. It seems less absorbent and possibly would resist stains more.

Comparisons
- I believe that they are comparable to the OEM floor mats. Some factors are not as good, (pile material?), some better (hump cover, expanded size). With the exception of the current sample driver’s side fit, I prefer the Top Design fit, including the hump cover.
- Most aftermarket mats are not custom fit, so these are very nice in that they are made specifically for the car model.

Customer Service and response from vendor.
- Peter has been very responsive to me. I was picked as a result of seeing his offer, and replying first. This caused him a bit of trouble since I’m in Canada. We have different import rules, and as a result there were import duties due to the government. He actually covered these costs to honor his commitment to send the samples. I commend him for this. Some vendors could have pushed this aside and gone on to someone else. Good job Peter.

Recommendations
1) Adjust the design of the front driver’s side so that it doesn’t want to climb up the transmission hump.
2) Adjust the logo design.
a. Reduce the height of the logo patch to be a smaller stripe
b. If they cannot provide the M-Performance logo, change the color of the Top Design logo to be consistent with the M-Performance coloring of “light blue/dark blue/red”
3) Change the stitching color to match the pile/binding color, rather than white; or use red/blue stitching
4) Consider providing an optional Trunk Liner in the same design with custom fit.

[lsturbointeg]

I'd be all over it! Too bad they don't make them for the 2011