Car boot liners (or trunk liners for USA readers), have one important similarity. They all try and put some form of barrier material between your boot interior, and the goods or animals carried in your boot.
There are three basic types of car boot liner, and depending on your needs, selection the correct car boot liner can be made by reading the following description.
Boot liners come in many different designs, sizes, materials, and fixing methods.
These range from a simple plastic sheet, either fitted or semi fitted, through moulded trays with both low and high sides and backs, to fully fitted hard wearing canvas or polyester material liners. [See the next section for materials and uses.]
Liners can be shaped to fit the individual vehicle, both low and high sided, or of a more ‘box’ style construction. Both have their uses. Moulded liners give a snug fit for each vehicle, and are more often than not low sided or just have a very small lip on three or more sides. Recently some of the larger car manufacturers such as Citroen, Mercedes, BMW, Peugeot, Honda have stopped making the high sided liners. Thus leaving owners of these car makes struggling to find the level of total protection they need. Try searching for “High sided Boot Liners” on Google or Yahoo, and see how few your options are. This seems to be a growing trend which means more and more car owners are failing to find the level of boot protection they desire. With the current economic slowdown, and therefore less cars being bought, you might think sales of boot liners would be reduced. However the opposite seems to be happening, sales are increasing.
While we can only guess at the increase in sales volume, a few customers have said they wanted to keep their cars longer, and have full protection from day one. The future resale values are beginning to be calculated in at the time of purchase.
We get a large number of dog owners who know from past experience what a mess any dog can make in the boot, and on the painted bumpers. So when they buy a new or new car to them, they want, (even insist) on a boot liner being in place before they allow the dogs anywhere near the car.
Also with many new cars being fitted with light coloured upholstery these days, a boot liner is no longer a useful accessory, no, now it has become a ‘Must Have’ item. We receive a large number of boot liner requests for cars that have not yet been delivered to their new owners. Obviously the priority here is to have full protection in place before the boot is used for any work, tools, carrying pet dogs etc.
What are boot liners made from? Many liners are made from very tough, and often waterproof materials, individually shaped for specific cars. While these achieve the first goal of a boot liner, to place a barrier between the boot and it’s contents, they do not achieve some other necessary goals. For example, when you have a good looking car, is it’s image ruined by a crumpled and sagging canvas or soft material liner? Does the fixing method look ugly, and how effective are the fixtures when a large dog has been in it a few times, or when heavy tools or garden waste etc are forced into the boot space?
Warning: There are boot liners made from canvas type materials, or the soft sheet types, and these often rely on Velcro to stick the high sides to the boot interior. However, before you buy any soft material liner, take along some hook (hard) Velcro, and test it on the plastic or carpeted sides or base. From personal experience and customers feedback, we have found that many vehicles now fit carpets and side and rear seat materials that Do Not Accept Velcro Fittings! For example, the following manufacturers have switched to these types of boot lining on some models; BMW, Mercedes, Saab, some Toyota, Peugeot, Audi, and others.
Fitting and Removal of boot liners. Another issue is that of ease of fitting and removal. How many cars now have compartments in the sides and base of the boot, for things such as spare tyre and tools, CD changers and the like? So ease of fitting, removal, good looks and functionality all need to be considered before purchasing a liner for your car. To learn more about car boot liners before buying, please visit www.boot-buddy.com
Car Boot Liners. 