Saturday, December 24, 2011

WTM (What's that Mat)? WTF? #epicfail

I'm back in South Africa on a brief pre-Christmas vacation. As public transport is one of the few still backward things here, I rented a Nissan Tiida for the two weeks I'm here. (Yes, I also think the name of that white fridge with wheels is a bit odd)

What really bugged me over the past two weeks has been the non-standard mats put over the standard mats by the car rental place. I just don't get it... There can't be anything more dangerous that this!

More than once, I've noticed that the non-standard mat, because it's loose, starts to creep under the pedals. Furthermore I've seen it crease upwards towards covering the pedals. This cannot be safe!

While giving the car a good ol' wash today, as I removed the various layers of the mats, I got even more annoyed. The standard mats that Nissan, bless them, put into the car had this Velcro-y underside which grips to the built in mats. This makes sure that you can't kick the darn thing forward.

The non-standard and dangerous additions on top not only moves but also blocks the seat rails. All of it are cut and torn due to overly aggressive sear movements. That, I discovered to be much worse. Imagine a small tear in the top corner, can you see something that might get caught in it?
Yes, pedals (because they are flat).

Lesson learnt, I'll double check next time and chuck all the extra mats into the trunk whenever I rent again!

1 comment:

Steve H said...

Ah, one of the biggest (if not main reason)behind the unintended acceleration scandal- the wrong use, misuse or overuse of floor mats.

Sad to see it still going on. Did nobody learn from Toyotas misfortunes?