Honda Fit: Slip sliding away

I have the rubber floor mats and experience the same issue. I never knew about the hooks until I read about them on the FitFreaks forum. The hooks do come with the mats, but I'm guessing your chances of getting them installed are only as good as you make them (ie: "Hey, aren't there supposed to be hooks???"). When I go in for my 5,000 mile service, I'm going to insist they install them, cause the mat slipping is a PAIN!

i think i purchased the third or fourth Fit my dealer had ever sold - this car is so new to them (and they sell so few compared to Civics and Accords) that I think there is just a steep learning curve at this point.

I got my OEM floor mats online a few weeks after getting my Fit and they came with hooks. There are 4 pages of instructions but that is because it includes templates that you cut out to show you where to cut (you only need them for the hooks in the right rear seat, which I didn't bother to install). It was really not a big deal and took about 20 minutes to do with an X-acto knife. The only downside to them is that the hooks stick up kind of far so I bump my heels on them from time to time.

I know the Fit is a decent car overall, but is it really good enough to justify everyone (apparently) overlooking this simple, but annoying, issue? Any other car manufacturer who had DIY hooks or had you order them would've been criticized till the cows came home. Just a guess.

I got the all-season floor mats when I purchased my Fit. The dealer installed them, hooks and all. They're only DIY if you get the mats somewhere other than the dealership. If you get the mats when you get the car, and the hooks aren't installed, it's an issue with the dealer not doing the installation the way they should.

When I bought my Fit the salesman made the mistake of telling me that the regular carpet floor mats came standard. As you all know, they do not. So he threw them in for free. And yes, I checked the invoice.
 
Installation was courtesy of the dealership as well, hooks and all.
 
Heck of a nice guy, that salesman. And I think it paid off for him in the end. I sent my Dad to him when he wanted to buy a Honda Ridgeline.

If you got them with the car, they should have installed the hooks - they come in the box with the floor mats - you just have a lazy dealership, and the Fit really likes having the hooks in for the front seats.
 
I ordered mine online to save $$ and the hooks were in the box.
 
It took me no more than 10 minutes max to install the hooks for the front (no templates for these, super easy). No slippage at all since they've been in.
 
I didn't even bother with the hooks in back, which is what all the template stuff was for. There's been no slippage there either, even w/o the hooks, and I have passengers in back all the time.
 
I have no idea why they eveb supply hooks for the back - If you look, you'll notice that only one of the rear mats even has holes in it (at least that's the case with the all season mats). There's only hooks for one of them supplied, and the instructions only call for you to put them in on one side - the other side is just supposed lay on the floor anyway.
 
If anyone is going to do a DIY install, I'd suggest following the instructions for the front, and just let the rear ones sit......

Not to sound like Mr Rodgers, but it is really unsafe not to have the clips. i bought factory all weather mats for my Highlander. I was too lazy to attach the mat to the clips and the mat slid forward over time. Well, one day I had to floor it while getting on the highway and the bottom of the gas pedal got stuck in the groove on the top of the floormat and kept accelerating once I took my foot off the gas. I had to reach down and pull on the floor mat to unstick it. Good times. it could happen.. so be careful.

the same reason you should never drive with grapefruit rolling around on the floor.

Somebody's a 'Simpsons' fan...

LOL! However, the Fit is the farthest thing from a school bus. We all know Otto Man wouldn't use floor mats anyway!

Yepper. 'Redandy' hit it on the nose, I did the same thing, to save the silly install fee. If you're handy enough with an x-acto or drywall knife/box cutter, you can knock this out pretty easily. If you paid for installation though, take it back to the dealer pronto and have them do this. All you should have to do is mention it, and they should take care of it.
  
I put in the hooks, front and back, and it wasn't a big deal at all. Make sure you cut far enough up to make sure the tabs get in straight. (I almost missed that the cutout goes a bit higher than I thought it did)
  
Oddities for new owners:
1) The small floormats are the *front* ones.
2) Only the rear right floormat has hooks, the left does not.
3) Try not to pull up the carpet in the back when feeding the rear hook receiver under... :)
  
Anyway - great car so far. I just bought my first tank of fuel (8.6G US) at 256 miles of city driving. Not too shabby considering the engine is in break in period until 600 miles (Planning a busy weekend so I can get to 600 as soon as possible).

Oh, and directly to the questions you asked...
 
1) The hooks come in the box with the mats, so don't let the dealer charge you guys for them, you might check the glove box (that's where a friend found his). The instructions come in the box with the mats as well. So the only reason they really weren't installed is that someone didn't want to, or was incapable of connecting the box when finding plastic bits and a set of instructions in the box.
2) If it was a DIY deal, someone (there) may have thought "Do *what* to install the hooks?? Please, like that little mat is going to slip around anyway... " ... at least that's what I said for the first 24 hours.

They could also have been stuck with the spare tire in the back, that is where I found my front license plate bracket.

I took delivery of an 08 base Fit for my Mom with the understanding that I would purchase the mats and cargo cover the day of delivery. My sales person was relatively new and placed the mats in the car. I was told by my Mom that the mats were slipping all week (I found this website after doing a search on the mats). The sales person put the plastic mat hardware in the back with the spare tire. I called the dealership and explained what needed to be done. No problem: an appointment was made and the mats were installed. Getting home, I first noticed that one of the mounting hooks on the drivers seat wasn't properly attached. I fixed that by re-inserting it into the car frame. There was a worse problem with the passenger side rear mat. The front hook was facing the wrong way making it very difficult getting the mat off since the hooks weren't both facing forward. I did remove the mat and noticed an incorrect hole was also cut the size of a quarter about four inches from the correct spot. The cut out for the front hook was much too large exposing one end of that part. I went back to the dealer because I was having trouble attaching this part-possibly because the carpet wasn't cut correctly. So what to do now? The Honda dealer has to do something. I didn't install the mats because I didn't want to screw it up so the dealer screwed it up for me. I will be asking for a piece of this carpet to patch the incorrect hole. I wish they never installed the rear mat as the hooks weren't necessary for that mat. I've never seen a car mat design this stupid and unnecesarily involved. I have a Cooper Mini with carpet and all season mats and they don't move at all. The rubber mats on the Mini weigh a ton and cost about the same price as the mats for the FIT. Any suggestions?

Does anyone have any official info as to whether or not Honda required dealerships to install the clips if the mats are purchased?

We purchased the all-season matts and have always been frustrated how they slip all around. My old honda civic had a recall on them where they installed the clips.

Today my wife caused $3000 of damage to our new fit when the floor mat slipped and she hit the gas instead of the break.

At the dealership, as we were getting an estimate for the damage, I went and talked to the service department. Only then did I learn that there was supposed to be a clip kit with the mats when we got them. As a favor they'd install them now for free for us.

This all seems fishy. Honda obviously knew of the issue with their civics. The Fit rubber matts on top of the already rubber floor make the issue even worse. They obviously are set up for clips which are included...but they don't require dealerships to install them at the time of purchase?

Anyone have any official info one way or the other?