BMWBLOG has been using the WeatherTech floor liners for the BMW i3 for the last 5 months and thought we’d give you an update on how they have been performing in our long term i3 in some nasty winter weather. When we installed our floor liners on October 5th, little did we know that this would be an epic winter.
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, our long term tester resides in a region that uses a lot of salt to deal with the snowy weather. The fortunate part is that salt melts the snow and ice faster making travel safe faster. The unfortunate part about salt on the road is how it coats your vehicle both on the surface, underneath and even works its way inside the cabin.
Simply looking at the WeatherTech liners, you could tell we had tracked a ton of salt from our shoes into the i3 in five months. I mean a ton, especially considering I knock the snow off the bottom of my shoes off before I get in. The liners are contiguous across the floor of the i3 and have large sidewalls, so that the melted slushy brine can roll around yet remain contained in the floor liner and not spill onto the carpet.
After removing the WeatherTech liners from the i3, I knocked all the rocks and sand out. Then hosed them out and washed them with my left over car wash soap which I had just use to wash our i3. I hosed the out well and let them dry in the sun.
Next I went and inspected the interior of the i3. The only part where you could tell anything had been exposed to salty brine of slush was the pedals. Given that your feet can be coated with slush, I was impressed this was the only area I could find had been hit with salt.
I vacuumed the interior out and cleaned off the pedals, and man, the interior looked new.
After the WeatherTech liners had dried, I popped them back in to keep protecting out i3. They definitely look much better cleaned up. It’s important not to put any type of silicone type treatment to the floor liners or you can make them slippery. I just dried them and did not apply anything.
Over the five months of daily use of the WeatherTech Floor liner, I was impressed that they did not shift at all around the pedals. Shifting of floor liners or mats can lead them to bunch up or wedge underneath the pedals leading to a pedal getting stuck and potentially causing a wreck. They have a fantastic fit and they fit so well that I have to slide the chairs all the way back, then tip the liner in to the front of the floor, slide them forward a bit and then snug them down.
Combing dedicated snow tires on the i3 with the WeatherTech floor liners, has made the BMW i3 handle winter weather without any difficulty. The only thing being range decrease one notes in all electric cars when weather turns seriously cold – like 5F (-15C) and less.
WeatherTech provided the liners we tested
